The Old Days
by Kaze Mirai
Summary: *Chapter 14 up*Forget - What did "her" voice sound like again?
1. From Old Home to New Home

**_A/N: After almost two playthroughs completed in Persona 3 Portable, I've had the idea for this story form in my head. Then again, Akihiko has pretty much become one of my favorite characters, with Shinjiro at a close second. I figured I'd take on writing about Aki's early life while the thought was still fresh. This is the first story I'm writing for Persona 3 in general, so some feedback and whatnot would be appreciated. I hope you enjoy. ^^ -Kaze_**

**_Persona 3 and related stuff (c) Atlus._**

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**The Old Days**

**Chapter 1**

**From Old Home to New Home**

_Spring 1996_

He didn't know how long he stared at the altar bearing the photographs of his parents.

The silver-haired boy sat cross-legged on the wooden floor of what had once been the family home, his grey eyes fixed on the structure in front of him. The room was empty; the only other occupants were a dark-haired man wearing a suit holding the hand of small girl with the same color of hair.

"Are you ready, Akihiko-kun?"

The boy nodded, but he didn't move right away. Just when the man looked as though he were about to speak again, he stood and faced him, his fists clenched. He didn't look the man in the eye, however, instead staring off to the wall nearby. "…Um… Kamiya-san, what's going to happen now? To me… and Miki?"

The man called Kamiya seemed thoughtful. "Well, since you have no relatives to take you in, your new home will be the local orphanage in Iwatodai."

"Orphanage?" Akihiko shifted uncomfortably. "Is it… is it a bad place?"

"No. The people there will take good care of you and Miki-chan. There are other children there, who don't have parents, like you. I'm certain you will be able to make some friends, Akihiko-kun."

The boy still didn't seem convinced. Kamiya sighed, shifting Miki to his other arm. "Look, we have to go now. We want to get there before it gets dark. Come on, Akihiko-kun."

Akihiko looked on as he turned to leave, noticing his toddler sister's eyes on him for a brief moment. Anger and sadness welled up within him; none of this was fair. Why did they have to die? Why did they leave him and Miki behind? Why? Why?

Fighting back his tears, he ran out the room, feet pounding against the floor.

* * *

The ride to the orphanage was a one-sided conversation for Kamiya Yuuji. Sure, a social worker's job wasn't easy, and it really wasn't easy when it came to situations like these. A case like Sanada Akihiko's and Sanada Miki's was uncommon, but something he had seen before. Then again, these were probably the two youngest children he had to deal with in his career. Akihiko was only four years old, and Miki, according to his file, was just a few days shy of her second birthday.

Yuuji had tried to talk to the boy several times after they had left what had been the Sanada residence, but gave up when he remained sullen and silent. He couldn't help but feel sorry for him, although he didn't say it aloud; the last thing any kid needs is an adult pitying their situation. The only sounds besides his own occasional cough were the rumbling engine of the car and soft, classical music that played from its radio. When Yuuji glanced at the rearview mirror, he saw that Miki had fallen asleep, clutching an old stuffed rabbit that was missing one of its button eyes, and Akihiko staring forlornly out the side window.

"We're almost there, Akihiko-kun," the worker announced, making another feeble attempt at conversation. "Like I said, you'll be taken care of at the orphanage, and there'll be other kids your age…"

A short pause, then the youth spoke up, his voice barely above a whisper. "How long will we be there?"

"… Well, some kids grow up there. Others get adopted by families. It's kind of hard to say," Yuuji replied, trying to sound as light-hearted as possible.

"Oh…" It wasn't convincing enough, apparently. The boy fell silent again, this time covering his eyes with one arm. Yuuji thought he heard him start sobbing, so he decided he wouldn't say anything else until they got there.

Thankfully, the rest of the drive there would be short.

* * *

If Suzuki Reiko already had her hands full before they arrived, things were probably going to get worse.

She and her niece Suoh were outside Iwatodai orphanage for a good fifteen minutes before the car pulled over to the curb and slowed to a subtle stop.

"'Bout time," the old woman grumbled under her breath. She was already sore that her other helper hadn't bothered to show up today, and the twelve kids already in their care, ranging in age from four to twelve years old, were more unruly than usual. Damn spring break.

In a minute, driver's side door opened and the social worker clambered onto the sidewalk and proceeded to let out the new charges.

"Come on, Suoh," Reiko said. "Let's get this over with."

A woman in her middle-fifties, Reiko was a tough woman who kept her dark brown hair in a tight bun except for a few strands of grey that loosely framed her face. She always wore a plain t-shirt and long red skirt under a yellow apron and a pair of flat shoes; it was something she was most comfortable in, except when she was actually going somewhere, like shopping, but then, her niece did most of that.

Suoh was her brother's daughter, a young woman in her mid-twenties who always cared for others. Unlike Reiko, Suoh wasn't so easily worn out from being around children, and not because she was younger; Reiko believed she had a gift for it, and Suoh had told her that she would take over running the place after she was gone. Her hair was the same color as her aunts, without the grey strands, and was kept in a loose ponytail.

The conversation with the social worker took a few minutes, during which Reiko was introduced to the two children. The silver-haired boy looked just as lost as anyone, and the girl with matching hair clutching his hand looked like she had just woken up, so what was going on now wouldn't register to her yet. The two small suitcases holding their belongings sat next to them on the ground.

"How old are they, Kamiya-san?" Suoh asked, looking on with concern.

"Four and just about two, respectively," the man replied.

"Humph, well isn't this nice." Reiko crossed her arms. "Sorry you had to come on such a bad day, Kamiya. Rest assured; you know they're in good hands. I wouldn't have been runnin' this place over twenty years if I let anything happen to these kids, eh?"

Kamiya chuckled lightly. "You always speak so roughly, Suzuki-san, but thanks for taking them in." He looked down to the boy and girl, his small smile fading. "Akihiko-kun, I've got to go know. I'll be back to check on you though, I promise." He ruffled the boy's head before turning back to the vehicle.

"Don't go killin' yourself now," Reiko called after him, waving an arm. The social worker simply held up one hand and didn't turn back.

The older woman noticed that the boy stared at the car as the engine roared to life once more and drove off, his expression unreadable. His hand seemed to grip the little girl's a bit tighter.

A crashing sound from inside suddenly caught their attention, and Reiko pushed up one of her sleeves and sighed. "Sorry, Suoh, I'm gonna have to leave them to you. Get them settled in while I do some damage control."

"Of course, Auntie." The young woman's voice sounded almost angelic to her ears as she went inside the building. "Now, Akihiko-kun…"

… This was most likely going to be a long night.


	2. Lone Kid and New Kid

**A/N: It's me again! I did have a bit of a hard time writing this chapter, mainly trying to imagine what Shinji would have been like as a little kid. I don't really know if I pulled it off or not.**

**Also, thanks for the fave and story alerts, LilLaoRyo704, Totschafe, and Zanscythe!**

**Ok, enough rambling from me. Here's the next chapter of The Old Days. Comments and/or constructive criticism really help!**

**Disclaimer: Persona 3 and related stuff (c) Atlus.**

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**Chapter 2**

**Lone Kid and New Kid**

It had been a week since that new kid and his baby sister showed up at Iwatodai Orphanage, bringing the number of children from a dozen to fourteen. For Aragaki Shinjiro, it just meant two more annoyances he had to deal with.

Before, Shinjiro was one of the youngest there, and the only other kid his age was some dork with glasses named Ichigo… he didn't know his last name.

The rest of the kids were older than him, and six of them were girls. Mai and Atsuko were the two oldest (twelve and eleven respectively) and formed some kind of "club" with the other four, Hanabi, Sakuya, Yuu, and Shinobu (nine, eight, eight-and-a-half, and six respectively). They always talked about pointless things that he didn't care about, played with dolls, had "tea parties" wherever they could get away with it, and glared at him whenever he walked by.

… Girls were annoying, anyway. So was their stupid fascination with all things pink. The only two kids more annoying than them were those idiots Masaru and Kenta.

Masaru and Kenta (who were seven and five, respectively) were the only set of siblings living in the orphanage. Both of them were always playing pranks on anyone they could… the girls, his brother, Ichigo, even the others in his little 'gang', Kouji and Hiro (both of them six years old). They tried to prank him once, but Shinjiro got them back by tackling the much larger Masaru before Suoh intervened. If it weren't for that, Masaru would have lost a few of his teeth much sooner.

Shinjiro was a little short for his age, with unkempt brown hair and eyes. His attire was nothing special, a black shirt, tan pants, and a pair of white sneakers. He mainly chose to be alone, away from the other children. It was almost as if there was a wall that separated him from the rest.

It was too annoying to deal with others, as far as he was concerned. Except for Ichigo, no one else seemed to get the message… heck, the worst offender was New Kid (the name Shinjiro decided to give him, he didn't bother to remember his name), who, after a couple of days, decided he'd try being the most annoying of them all by trying to talk to everyone every chance he got even while his sister followed behind him…

…especially Shinjiro himself.

* * *

_Orphanage Backyard – Early Afternoon_

"Hey, are you deaf or something? This is the Dazzling Beauty Pretty Shoujo Club for Girls Only. NO BOYS ALLOWED!"

Mai's voice was unusually harsh today. Out the corner of his eye, Shinjiro noticed from where he sat on the far right swing that the dark-haired girl whose wardrobe had to be nothing more than the exact same frilly pink dress and pink shoes was screeching at her latest victim… New Kid. New Kid's sister had her small fingers gripping his shirt and a free hand clutching a toy rabbit, as though all the hot air in Mai's head threatened to blow her away.

"… but Miki wants to play over here," New Kid was protesting. Shinjiro had to admit, he had guts. "She likes the slide."

"Then let her play on the slide while you go away someplace else." The other shrill voice belonged to Hanabi, who tried to copy Mai in every single way but failed. "'No boys' means 'no boys'."

"NOOOO!" New Kid's sister, apparently called Miki, screamed at the top of her lungs. "I wan' stay wit' Onii-chan!"

There was a moment of silence. New Kid looked kind of sad, then he told the girls right to their faces, "You're all mean." Then he turned about face and walked away from them, Miki following behind with a tight grip on his hand.

Shinjiro couldn't help but smile. New Kid had some guts; he left those stupid girls dumbstruck, and Mai's head seemed to inflate with newfound anger. He imagined it exploding into confetti and chuckled to himself.

His momentary happiness was rudely interrupted a moment later when he heard Miki start talking again, this time from nearby.

"Onii-chan! Swing! Swing!"

Before he knew it, the silver-haired siblings were headed right in his direction, with the girl running ahead of him. How old was she supposed to be? She was so… short. Her short hair was neatly styled into two pigtails-Suoh's doing-and she was wearing a lavender-colored sweater with a purple scarf, purple pants, and purple shoes. She was grinning from ear to ear as she reached the swing right next to Shinjiro, oblivious of the boy's glare.

"Miki! That's the big kid swing! Suoh-san said you can't play on that!" New Kid wasn't too far behind, wearing a red turtleneck, dark pants and sneakers, carrying the stuffed toy rabbit she'd abandoned on the ground. It really looked like it was loved.

New Kid didn't notice Shinjiro's eyes on him until he'd caught up with Miki. Gray hues stared the brunette right back in his face, confused. The other set of gray looked on warily once the heavy atmosphere registered to her.

"Uh… whatcha staring at me for?"

"You're in my space, New Kid." Shinjiro tried to sound as belligerent as possible.

New Kid just kept staring, taken aback at this nickname. "New Kid?"

"Are you some kinda idiot? You're the new kid here, so you're 'New Kid'."

"That's not my name." New Kid's brow furrowed.

"Well, I forgot," Shinjiro lied. "What is it?" He got up from the swing and crossed his arms. He thought he looked intimidating enough, but all it did was make Miki's grip her brother's sleeve even tighter.

"…Sanada Akihiko. This is my li'l sister Miki." His expression never changed. In fact, he looked deep in thought. "Um… I don't remember your name, either…"

"Shinjiro. Now leave me alone." The brunette turned to walk away. This was the longest he'd ever talked to anyone, and he wasn't about to stick around here and keep wasting time talking. One of Akihiko's hands, however, grabbed his sleeve.

"Wait. What's your last name? When you introduce yourself to people, you tell them your last name."

Was this boy nuts? The brunette wrenched his arm free and glared at him. "Leave me alone," he said, louder this time. "I told you my name, ain't that enough for you?"

Apparently not, because Akihiko kept talking. "No. Why are you over here all by yourself anyway?"

"Cuz Lone Kid thinks he's too cool to hang with anybody. Ain't that right, Lone Kid?"

Great. The last voice Shinjiro wanted to hear.

The two boys, with matching charcoal hair and eyes, which Shinjiro recognized as Masaru and Kenta, were standing a few feet behind the silver-haired youth. Masaru wore a navy puffed coat, denim jeans, and black and white sneakers. His brother wore a red puffed coat, dark jeans, and red and white sneakers. Both of them sneered at the younger three, especially Akihiko, as though sizing him up.

"Whaddaya want?"

"It's nothin' t'do with you!" Kenta was jumping up and down like an idiot. He must have gotten his hands on some source of sugar. "Aniki wanna say hi to New Kid."

"That's not my name," Akihiko protested, getting visibly tense as Miki retreated behind him, clutching her rabbit.

"Well, I don't care what your name is." Masaru's black eyes seemed to drill into Akihiko, rooting him to the spot. "You're still the new kid here, so I'm gonna call you 'New Kid' till I come up with something else."

"Onii-chan," Miki whimpered. "I wan' go inside."

"'I wan' go inside,'" Masaru mocked the girl. "Seriously, New Kid, you'd be a lot better off if you ditched the baby."  
"She's my sister!" Akihiko told him through clenched teeth. "Leave 'er alone!"

"New Kid's got guts, Aniki!" Kenta seemed more hyper than before.

"Yeah, he does." Masaru clapped a hand onto his fist. "I wonder how tough he's gonna be after I show 'im how to listen to big kids."

…Masaru had to be on another level of stupid, trying to pull something like this. He and his brother were so busy grinning like the dummies they were that neither one of them noticed Shinjiro's foot smashing down on the older one's foot.

The girls hogging the slide on the other side of the yard had to have stopped what they were doing and poked their heads out of their hiding places (even Mai's abnormally large cranium) to see Masaru on the ground howling in pain and holding his foot.

Shinjiro crossed his arms and huffed, inwardly pleased to see the older boy knocked down a couple of notches. The moment didn't last long, however, as Suoh's voice echoed from the building.

"What's going on out here?"

Kenta froze, his eyes locked on the brunette youth and a goofy grin plastered on his face. Shinjiro could even feel Akihiko's and Miki's stares on him.

…Crud.

The sound of her crunching footsteps got closer and closer until they stopped nearby. Shinjiro simply looked up into Suoh's stern face, his expression indifferent as usual.

"Shinjiro, you're coming with me."

…This was going to be a long day.

* * *

_Orphanage, 1__st__ Floor Dining Room – Late Afternoon_

"I haven't heard Suoh-san sound so upset in a while. That Aragaki kid is nothing but trouble."

"Trouble is an understatement, Mai. He's rotten to the core. Trust me, I know…"

There they go, talking about him like he wasn't even there. Not that Shinjiro cared or anything. He'd gotten used to this a long time ago.

He had spent the rest of the day inside after Suoh got through talking with him. To his surprise, New Kid-er, Aki-something, he couldn't remember the rest of it- had burst into the room, telling Suoh the whole incident wasn't entirely Shinjiro's fault. It didn't really help as the other boy must have been hoping, because Suoh told him, "Two wrongs don't make a right," and told him she would talk with him and Masaru later.

Now, he was sitting with his head on the table in the dining room, trying to ignore the conversations and noise coming from the next room. Of course, he would be denied his peace yet again…

"Um… Sorry… if I got you in more trouble."

Brown eyes focused on the silver-haired youth standing next to where he sat. His sister stood behind him, looking wary.

"Forget it," Shinjiro muttered, sitting upright. "'S not about you, anyway."

"But you stood up for me…"  
"I said 's not about you." Shinjiro's voice was a bit louder now. "Masaru got what he got, an' that's it."

There was a short pause. Akihiko shifted his feet, looking down at them before he spoke again.

"Shinjiro, why are you always by yourself?"  
"'Cuz I wanna be. How come you won't leave me alone, Aki… um…" The brunette child trailed off, deep in thought.

"Akihiko," the other boy said. "You say it like A-ki-hi-"

"Shut up, I ain't stupid! It's just too much to say, 's all. So…" Shinjiro pointed a finger at him. "I'm just gonna call you 'Aki'."

The newly dubbed "Aki" looked offended. "Well, if you're gonna do that, then I'll jus' call you 'Shinji' 'stead of your real name!"

"Fine by me."

"Eh? You're s'posed to get mad!"

"I told you I'm fine with it, moron!"

"I'm not a moron, you are!"

"You are!"

"You!"

After a while, the bickering simply turned into laughter...

…Shinjiro would never admit to it, but he was glad someone dared to chip away at that wall.

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**A/N: The beginning of friendship? Probably not yet. Aki and Miki did sort of just get there, after all. The nickname thing took a bit of fudging around because, well, they're still little kids.  
As for why this is "Friendship & Drama," the "Drama" part is for later. At this point it'd just be kind of silly. :p**

**See you next chapter!**

**-Kaze **


	3. Powerless

**A/N: And after a while, here's the next one! Not only did I start over, like, a million times, but I also had to fight an oncoming cold (which I'm just getting over as I'm typing this… D: ). **

**Thanks to Angel-Ii-Demoni for the review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own P3/FES/Portable. It's all (c) to Atlus.**

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**Chapter 3  
****Powerless**

_**Summer 1996**_

If someone asked Akihiko what he thought of orphanages, he wouldn't be able to give an honest answer. Despite being here a few months now, he still wasn't really used to the place.

Kamiya was right when he said that a child would be adopted into a new family. Not that he knew what being adopted meant, but he remembered seeing the girls huddled around a teary-eyed Yuu. After that he never saw her again.

He remembered seeing another couple talking with Reiko and Suoh and saw a nervous Kouji with them. Two days later, he never saw him around Masaru and Kenta anymore.

Even Ichigo, who he had only talked to once or twice, was seen leaving with a rather well-dressed man and woman who had their own butler. Suoh looked a bit teary-eyed as she saw him off. Ichigo had run back to her and hugged her legs, but she ruffled the boy's hair and told him it was okay. He let go, and reluctantly headed through the front doors.

Even though he barely knew them, he couldn't help but feel a sense of loss. It must have been just him, because when he tried talking to Reiko, she simply told him, "Kids come and go through here all the time. It's just how things are. It's like a family that's always changing." She then proceeded to tell him some stories about children that came through the doors in the past. While he didn't care that one or two of them easily reminded her of Masaru and Kenta, he could sense that she was attached to them, and she was generally glad to have been a mother figure to them and helped them in some way or another.

"Reiko-san?" he asked when she finished.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Do you think that someone's gonna adopt me an' Miki?"

The old woman gave him a wry smile. "I wouldn't worry about it, Akihiko-kun. You've been through a lot of stuff since you came here, and you're still just a kid. I'm pretty sure your Mom and Dad in heaven wouldn't want to see you and your little sis all sad and stuff, do they?"

Akihiko shook his head. "Nuh-uh."

"Good. They may not be here anymore, but they're still lookin' after you. Just remember that, 'kay?" She reached an arm out and ruffled his hair. "Now, go on and be a kid. You're gonna grow up sooner than you know it."

Akihiko started to turn and run, but then he remembered his manners. "Th-thank you, Reiko-san!" he said gratefully before he left.

* * *

_Naganaki Shrine - Afternoon_

"Just think, from now till September, we won't have to worry about school, Atsu-chan~!"

From his perch atop the horizontal bars, Shinjiro turned his head to see Mai and Atsuko by the slide, talking to each other like they always did. How they could stand there blabbing about pointless things, he still couldn't quite understand. Aside from calling Aki an idiot whenever he did something stupid he never really talked to him. All he did was play with his sister anyway, and she always hid behind him whenever she saw him, like he was a monster or something.

"Oh, Mai, you know the summer festival's coming up in a week, right?" Atsuko squeaked. "This'll be our last one as elementary school students, ne?"

"I forgot about that! I can't wait to finally wear a yukata again! I know exactly what mine will look like."

"Me, too!"

To the lone boy's displeasure, Atsuko looked up to him with a smile. "Shinjiro-kun should come, too."

He scoffed. "Don't wanna. Festivals are stupid."

"That's only because you've never been there," Mai pointed out. "Way ruin the mood, Atsu-chan."

"Why do you always have to be like that, Mai?" her friend shot back.

"Well, aren't you all lively today?"

The children turned to see Suoh approaching them from the altar building. She was giving them a happy smile, though Shinjiro could see, even from the top of the bars, that her eyes were red and puffy, as though she had been crying.

"We were just talking about the summer festival, Suoh-san." Mai was always so quick to speak. "I know exactly what kind of yukata I'm wearing this year."

"That's nice. What about you, Atsuko-chan?"

"Um, I don't know yet. Are you going to the summer festival this year, Suoh-san?"

Suoh just nodded. "I've never missed one, have I?"

"Great!" Atsuko squeaked. "Wear a yukata, too, please?"

"Please, please!" Mai chimed in, tugging the woman's shirt.

"Alright, alright, I will."

"Yes!" The girls exchanged pleased grins.

"Now that that's out the way, let's go home. Shinjiro?"

The boy had just reached solid ground and still had one hand on a bar. He only nodded in reply and started for the shrine steps ahead of the females.

"Shinjiro, stay where I can see you," Suoh called after him.

* * *

_Orphanage, 1__st__ Floor, Playroom - Afternoon_

"Give it back, Masaru! That's Miki's!"

"Come and get it then! Aki-freak-o!"

The rest of the children just sat there and watched as the two boys darted about. Masaru apparently decided today was "Tease the Little Kids Day" and snatched Miki's rabbit right from her hands as she and Akihiko entered the room. The girl promptly started howling for her "Usa-kun," and Akihiko's blood started boiling.

That was about five minutes ago.

"Give it back!" the silver-haired boy shouted, nearly stumbling as he once again grabbed at air.

"I'm telling Reiko-san!" Hanabi called out at them before leaving the room. Shinobu followed after her, leaving Sakuya with Miki, who was trying her best to comfort the toddler, but found herself covering her ears at the screaming.

"Hey, aniki, he looks like he's gonna start cryin'!" Kenta jeered from the other side of the room.

"Trip him!" Hiro demanded, pumping his fists.

Masaru grinned at them mischievously, and then stuck his foot out as he sidestepped the silver-haired boy once again while keeping the stuffed rabbit hostage in his hand, held above his head. It worked all too well.

_***THUD!***_

The sound was enough to make the remaining kids cringe. Miki's screaming only got louder.

* * *

Akihiko was staring at his face in the mirror. One bandage covered a cut above his eye, another over the bridge of his nose. Nothing could be done for the cut inside his mouth, and it made his jaw throb in pain.

Sure, it hurt him, but hearing Miki's wailing was a lot more unbearable.

He rubbed his eyes, trying to get rid of the tears. He couldn't face Miki like this. He was the big brother. He had to be strong, his mom and dad were always telling him that…

… Falling on his face just meant what he had was not enough.

"Onii-chan."

Usa-kun was near his eye level when he turned his head.

"Onii-chan, okay?"

"Miki." Giving the toddler a small smile, he knelt down and pointed to his bandages. "See, Reiko-san made Onii-chan's all- ow…" He stopped talking, the cut in his mouth bothering him again.

She stared at him with worried eyes, as though she could see right through him. She held her rabbit up to him. "Take."

"No, Miki, that's your Usa-kun," Akihiko spoke slowly.

"Take!"

"Stop it, Miki!"

"Take~!" She shoved the stuffed rabbit in his face. He could feel its lone button eye on his cheek.

"I said no!" He swatted it away, and it landed on the floor with a soft thump.

Miki looked on for a full minute. Her tiny body trembled, and she started to pout.

Oh, no…

Her small hands balled into fists as she brought them to her face to rub her eyes free from tears.

Not again…

She hiccupped once, and started to sob.

Now he'd done it…

The sobbing escalated into wails. And he was still standing there.

"You stupid or something?"

Akihiko blinked. The brunette boy was standing in the doorway, hands stuffed into his pockets, eyeing him incredulously. How long had he been standing there?

Not even waiting for him to answer, Shinjiro stalked forward and snatched the fallen rabbit from the floor. Akihiko immediately tensed up. "Hey! That's Miki's!"

"I ain't takin' it, stupid. So shut up." It was enough to silence the silver-haired youth, who only watched as the other boy showed the toy to Miki. Once she noticed it in front of her, her sobbing stopped, and she took it from Shinjiro's outstretched hand.

Akihiko was starting to feel awkward now, so he decided he'd stare at his feet. "I… I was gonna do that, you know. You didn't hafta do anything."

"Tch. Whatever." The brunette stood up and started to walk away. He stopped just short of the doorway, however, removing his other hand from his pocket.

"You're a bad big brother."

The words stabbed the other boy like a knife. His previous unease turned to anger. "What do YOU know, Shinji? S'not like you got a brother or a sis… ow…" His hand covered his mouth; that cut was bothering him again. And now it felt worse thanks to the dull pain in his jaw.

"I don't. Least I ain't stupid, Aki. Your sister… Miki only wanted you to feel better."

The siblings looked on as he left, Akihiko feeling worse than before, Miki seemingly content, holding Usa-kun with one arm and waving at the brunette with the other.

"Bye-bye, Shinji."

Akihiko let out a sigh. He was starting to hate the hollow feeling in his stomach right now…

* * *

_Orphanage, Dining Room - Late Evening_

"What's on your mind, Suoh? You haven't touched your coffee."

Reiko was sitting directly across the table from her niece, brows furrowed. "Are you listening to me, Suoh? Oi!"

The younger brunette was idly tracing a circle around the rim of her mug with a finger, her gaze fixed nowhere in particular. At the sound of her aunt's voice, she blinked, brown eyes staring at the older woman as a sheepish grin crossed her features.

"Did you say something, Oba-san?"

Reiko pursed her lips, her wrinkled face sagging a little. "You're your father's kid through and through. While you were daydreaming, your coffee's getting cold."

"Oh…" Suoh didn't seem too concerned. "And you tell me not to waste things so much. Sorry, Oba-san."

"I'm not worried about that," Reiko said pointedly. "You've been moping about since you came back from the shrine."

The younger woman looked away from her. "I just went to visit him again. That's all."

"I heard from the kids you dragged with you today… including Shinjiro-kun," Reiko said matter-of-factly. "Strange, for a kid who tries to look like he's annoyed with everything, he's too nice to tell you he doesn't want to go there anymore."

The look of surprise was evident on Suoh's face, which only made her aunt smile. "You didn't know? Ha, that just shows you're a bit too soft."

"But, Oba-san…"

"Why would he talk to me instead of you? It's simple: you treat everyone- him more so than everyone else- like a regular kid. No kid here is an ordinary kid. They've got more of a load on their shoulders than regular kids."

Suoh nodded in reply, but she still looked troubled at the revelation. "… I see…" She got up from the table and started for the door.

"Suoh? What's the matter?" her aunt questioned, her voice concerned. "Where are you headed off to?"

"… To bed," she replied half-heartedly. "Thanks for the coffee. Sorry to waste it… I… I'll make sure the children are all asleep…"

"Alright then… 'Night, Suoh."

"Goodnight, Oba-san."

* * *

**A/N: Funny how Shinji's the one with no siblings and he gets Miki to stop crying while calling insulting Aki again in the process. I bet even Miki sees that he's not all that scary, and she's two. And, yeah, Suoh's has a bit of baggage, too. Not too much, though, we don't need a Trauma Conga Line for an OC (*shot*).**

**See you next chapter!**

**-Kaze**


	4. Sneaking Out

**A/N: This chapter continues where the previous one left off. There's a bit more interaction here with Aki and Shinji, which resulted in more dialogue than I wanted. Nevertheless, I decided it should be a bit shorter since I wanna continue trying to explore what I can do with the summer festival.**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Persona 3/FES/Portable and all related stuff (c) Atlus.**

* * *

**Chapter 4  
****Sneaking Out**

_Orphanage, 2__nd__ Floor, Boys' Bedroom - Late Night_

A pair of brown eyes opened as soon as the door closed. Suoh's usual check didn't take as long today, but he could tell by the shuffling of her footsteps that she wasn't feeling to energetic.

Shinjiro slowly sat up, taking care that the old bed he slept in didn't squeak. His eyes were already used to the darkness, so he could easily see the other boys were already settled in for the night.

Now was a good a time as any. But there was one thing he forgot to take into account as he climbed out of bed and started towards the door- the occupant of the bed that was closest to the entryway to the hall.

As soon as he turned the knob and opened the door, the voice stopped him right in his tracks.

"What are you doing, Shinji?"

Great. Of all people, it just had to be him. The silver-haired boy had sat up and was looking right at him in the darkness. His hair was a bit messed up, but he seemed wide awake.

"None of your business. Go back to sleep, Aki."

Akihiko's brows knitted together; the brunette figured it had to be either because of the nickname (it was stuck at this point, much to the other boy's chagrin) or at his own rudeness-not that he cared.

"You can't go out. You're gonna get in trouble."

"Whatcha gonna do? Stand there like an idiot like when you made your sister cry?" Shinjiro opened the door wider, hoping his insult would silence this kid.

"Sh-shut up!" Nope, didn't work. Akihiko sounded more flustered than anything, in fact.

Satisfied that the silver-haired boy would remain silent, Shinjiro stepped out the door and closed it behind him. Hopefully, no one would follow.

… Apparently not, because not even five seconds later, the door opened again. When he turned around to look, his eyes slightly widened when he saw Akihiko standing there.

"What do you want now?" he asked, his irritation getting the better of him. This kid was either very stupid or just plain weird. Either way, he was going to worm his way around him. "Go back."

"Not until you do."

"And if I say no?"

"I'm gonna tell Suoh-san and Reiko-san." Akihiko crossed his arms. He sounded serious.

Shinjiro scoffed, "Right, so you're gonna wake up the grownups just so you could tattle on me and get yourself in trouble, too? You dummy."

While the other boy's mouth flapped about like a fish, either unable to speak or trying to keep himself from yelling, he started down the hall again. Surely, Aki would get the point and go back.

… Unfortunately, the sound of footsteps behind him told otherwise.

His frustration building, the brunette waited until he reached the first floor and paused. Not too far behind him, the other pair of feet stopped as well.

"You're gonna follow me everywhere I go, huh?" He said this while turning to face the silver-haired youth, who he could've sworn had the nerve to look smug. Maybe calling him stupid all the time was coming back to haunt him, but he didn't care about that now. "Don't you get it? I want you to leave me alone!"

By this point, most others would have run back upstairs. But not Akihiko; he just stood there, looking him right in the eyes, arms crossed over his chest, as though he were trying to be some authority figure. "I'm not going back until you do."

There was a tense moment of silence. Despite how menacing Shinjiro was trying to make himself look, he probably looked more uncomfortable than anything. Even in the dark hall, the other boy seemed to notice this.

The "wall" he had kept up for the longest time around the other kids was fast collapsing because of this kid.

Shinjiro looked down at his feet, biting his lower lip. His fists were still clenched. "Fine. Do what you want, just… stay outta my way and don't talk to me." He turned and stalked through the hall, and, when he reached the end, pulled open the door that led to the backyard.

… That Aki kid was a total pain.

* * *

_Orphanage Backyard - Late Night_

The backyard was always different at night, especially when it was dimly illuminated by the moonlight. For Shinjiro, it was a sight that made him feel at piece since as far back as he can remember. Unfortunately, his unwanted companion seemed far more wary.

The brunette descended the stairs and sat in the grass. He didn't really care if his shorts got dirty; he had always changed them when he went back inside. Looking behind him, Akihiko had remained standing on the stairs, looking slightly confused, but he stayed silent.

Good. Maybe he could get a moment of peace.

After a few minutes, however, it started to feel awkward knowing that this kid was standing behind him, looking at him like was crazy for sneaking out of bed to look at the moon. Of course, this was the same kid who got mad at him for giving his little sister back her favorite toy. Come to think of it, he did apologize after Shinjiro got in trouble a week after he got here.

Back then, however, the Aragaki boy didn't know that this silver-haired youth was such an idiot.

He brought his knees up to his chest, wrapping is arms around them, and then rested his chin on his knees. He knew he couldn't stay out here much longer; it would only be a matter of time before one of the women went to the boys' and girls' rooms to make sure everyone was asleep for one last time.

"You come outside by yourself all the time?" Akihiko's voice grated its way to his ears.

"None of your business," came his annoyed reply. "S'why I told you not to talk to me." He had to suppress his urge to call him stupid again, that's why he was out here now.

He looked back again momentarily to see that the other boy had sat down on the steps, although he was shifting uncomfortably. "It's cold," he complained, adjusting his oversized t-shirt so that they covered his shorts and legs.

"Then don't sit on them."

"Shut up!"

If this kid's glare was supposed to intimidate him, it wasn't working. Shinjiro simply looked him in the eye, his expression unreadable. After a moment, the silver-haired boy decided to look at his feet.

"… I thought… that you were nicer… 'cause you gave Usa-kun back to Miki."

Usa-kun? Oh, the toy rabbit Aki so graciously knocked out of the toddler's hands. Nice.

The brunette shifted uncomfortably, averting his gaze. "So what?"

"So what are you mean to ev'rybody for, Shinji?" That failed attempt at an insulting nickname seemed to stick to him now; not that he cared.

"'Cause you keep askin' me stuff that's none of your business. What do you want, Aki?"

"…" Oh, NOW he wanted to stop talking. Whoop-de-doo. Out the corner of his eye the silver-haired boy seemed to be staring at his feet even harder now.

… He had enough of this. The Aragaki boy stood up and turned to face him so that he could see his annoyed grimace. "So what? You're not gonna answer me? You ain't have a problem askin' me stuff. Or are you that dumb on purpose?"

Akihiko stared at him, dumbstruck. He recovered quickly, though, and his face contorted- well, more like his eyebrows knitted together- with anger. His head seemed to inflate a little like Mai's.

"… I was gonna say sorry… for before," he said after a moment of trying to control himself. "… Masaru took Usa-kun from Miki and wouldn't give it back. Then he tripped me and I fell."

Well, that explained the bandages on his face. At least he wasn't stopping mid-sentence to whine about whatever hurt anymore.

"What, so you thought I was gonna take the rabbit? What do I look like playin' with a girl's doll?" Shinjiro crossed his arms, as though it would make him appear more intimidating. Not that it'd work on someone like Akihiko, anyway.

"I was mad, okay?" He sure flipped a lot between quiet and half-loud.

"… Whatever." Shinjiro started for the stairs, causing the boy to move aside. He paused as he reached for the doorknob.

"I'm not a bad big brother, Shinji," Akihiko spoke up.

There was a moment of silence. Why he even bothered to mention that, the brunette didn't even care to know. He simply shrugged it off. "… Let's go back."

"Eh?"

"Stupid, you don't wanna get in trouble, do you?"

"No way!"

Thankfully, the trip back to the room was silent.


	5. To The Festival?

**A/N: I didn't think I'd finish this chapter so soon. O.o ****Then again, I actually won't have much time to update after this week, so, this is a good thing.**

**Thanks for reviews/faves to Deidara'sgirl19 and Rewritten Ennui. ^-^ **

**As far as the end goes, I had thought about it for the longest time, but I thought it would be better if the three of them (Aki, Shinji, and Miki) were all at the festival. Of course, that just means it'll have to be a later chapter. ****Anyways, this chapter is the last one for the "1996 Arc." I'm skipping ahead by almost two years, because I think little Miki really needs to shine before you-know-what goes down. Ugh, I'm dreading it already. D:**

**Also, I hope I didn't make Shinji too OOC for this chapter. I know he's like, five at this point (it's still summer), but still…**

**I've rambled on long enough, now. Enjoy the chapter! Feedback is also my best friend.**

**I don't own Persona 3 or its related stuff.**

* * *

**Chapter 5  
****To the Festival?**

Shinjiro was really kind of weird, Akihiko began to notice over the next couple of days.

Whenever Reiko was cooking in the kitchen, he stood there, watching her every move, measuring ingredients and making sure the rice was just the right temperature when cooking. He never once asked to help, and, oddly enough, Reiko didn't mind his presence in the least.

He actually ate all his vegetables, unlike some of the other kids who shoved theirs aside. Even Akihiko himself carefully avoided carrots if he found them.

On the way back from a trip to the store with Suoh another time, a stray dog crossed their path. The young woman shrank back in fear, but Shinjiro stepped forward, pet the animal on the head, and then tossed a ball he had in his pocket (which he picked up in the playroom when no one was looking, of course) as hard as he could.

When the dog bounded after it, Suoh grabbed the boy's hand, scolded him, and hurriedly dragged him off, leaving Akihiko to trail at their heels.

He tried talking to Shinjiro about all this, but he had just glared at him and commented, "I don't say anything about you playin' with dolls with your sister, so stop botherin' me about it. Stupid."

Well, it was true. None of the girls would play with Miki- they said she was too little to join their club, whatever they called it- so he was stuck making a teddy bear pretend to dance with Usa-kun while Masaru laughed at him. When Shinji walked by he shoved the older boy into the girls while they were having one of their pretend tea parties. The end result was loud squealing and Masaru rushing off to change his clothes, as some of the water that got on his pants made it look like he'd soiled himself.

Surprisingly, Shinji didn't get in trouble.

Miki wasn't wary around him anymore. In fact, whenever she saw him, she'd wave and call after him. The first time she did that, Shinji stared at her, looking thoroughly embarrassed, and proceeded to run up the stairs. Akihiko had never seen his expression change like that before.

Maybe she was seeing the other side of him? He didn't know.

* * *

_Orphanage, 1__st__ Floor, Dining Room - Evening_

Everyone was excited about the upcoming summer festival at the Naganaki Shrine. It was probably the only time the girls and boys actually conversed on a common topic, although a lot of it turned into bickering about the best kind of mask to wear.

Akihiko wasn't really listening to them; his stomach was growling uncomfortably. For some odd reason, he'd noticed that Miki got very little food in her bowl, so he just simply handed his plate over to her, having lost his appetite once Masaru decided jokes about toilets and vomit was all people wanted to hear. The toddler was happy now that her face was half-covered in curry with grains of rice stuck on her cheeks, but Akihiko was too tired to smile back at her.

In the midst of all the anticipation and conversation, however, Shinjiro was nowhere to be seen. He usually occupied the last chair nearest the door so he was the first one to leave, but was empty this evening. He slowly lifted his head once he realized this, but a voice quickly derailed his train of thought.

"Hey, Sanada, you and your sister are coming to the festival with us."

"Eh?" He quickly turned to Mai, who sat in the middle of the room where the two tables were pushed together.

The dark-haired girl brushed a few strands of hair behind her ear. "You're coming with us," she repeated, her voice a bit harsher. "Suoh-san says so. This'll be the first one without your parents around, but she says she wants everyone to not worry about that and have some fun."

"Oh." Akihiko simply nodded, his attention drifting back to Shinjiro. He didn't really hear the rest of what she had to say, except something about a yukata and goldfish.

* * *

_2__nd__ Floor, Boys' Room - Evening_

He found Shinjiro- or rather, his messy hair- poking out from underneath a blanket when he arrived in the boys' room later on that evening. He paused for a moment, unsure whether the boy was awake or not.

"Shinji?"

The other boy pulled off the blanket a bit and looked up at him. "Oh, it's just you, Aki." Well, he wasn't asleep after all. He shifted to a sitting position, gazing at the silver-haired boy intently.

"What are you doin' here? I didn't see you downstairs…"

"I ate and left. 'Sides, everybody's talkin' about that festival thing. I don't wanna hear it."

"Why not?" Akihiko's brow furrowed. "You're not gonna stay here, are you?"

"I don't wanna go there," the brunette huffed. "Waste of time." For some reason, he looked away from Akihiko as he said this.

The silver-haired youth was about to inquire, but his stomach growled again. Even in the dark room, he could see that Shinjiro's eyes widened for the briefest of moments before a smirk crept across his face.

Akihiko tried his best not to look embarrassed. "M-Miki didn't have much to eat, so I gave her what I had."

Shinjiro didn't respond; he had slid off his bed and pulled out a shoebox from underneath. Opening the lid, he pulled out two small rectangular objects before closing it and sliding it back underneath his bed again. He shoved one of the small objects into Akihiko's hands, muttering, "Take it. S'chocolate. Not the best thing, but it's better than nothing."

The silver-haired boy was too hungry to ask where he had gotten these from; he gratefully peeled the wrapper off the candy bar and took a bite. "Thanks, Shinji. You really are nice after all."

"M-moron!" Shinjiro sounded flustered. "Just shut up a-and eat."

* * *

_1__st__ Floor, Dining Room - Morning_

The anticipation in the air was much more apparent, Akihiko noticed immediately the following day.

Suoh left with a few of the girls to go shopping after breakfast, and the rest of the children retreated to the playroom, all of them giddily discussing all of the things they expected to see and do at the festival.

Akihiko was left with Miki again- not that he minded it any, he had gotten used to it by now. His thoughts drifted back to Shinjiro for a moment, and he realized he hadn't seen the surly child all morning.

"Come on, Miki," the boy said to his sister. "We're gonna go see Shinji."

* * *

_2__nd__ Floor, Boys' Room - Daytime_

"What are you doing here?"

How Shinjiro knew it was him, Akihiko couldn't even begin to make sense of it. He was sitting on his bed at the far end of the boys' room, facing the window. He hadn't even bothered to turn to face him when he spoke.

"I was just wondering where you were, Shinji," the silver-haired boy replied. "What's the… Miki, don't push!"

The toddler squeezed past him and made a beeline right for Shinjiro, much to his chagrin. The sullen boy turned to face her, his messy hair obscuring his eyes (it seriously needed to be brushed). He made no attempt to push her away or move, even when she tugged hard at his shirt sleeve with tiny hands.

"Shinji, what's the matter?" Akihiko's brows knitted together; something wasn't quite right here.

"S'nothing," Shinjiro told him indifferently. He still hadn't bothered to move, and Miki gave up tugging on him. She crossed her short arms, pouted at him, and ran back over to her older brother.

A tense silence settled upon the room. Akihiko was concerned, Miki was quietly fussing, and Shinjiro was just sitting there.

"… Hey, Aki…"

"Eh?" Akihiko cocked his head slightly, confused.

"You're a pain."

"Eh!"

"You're always trying to hang around me. You've got a sister to play with, why bother with me?"

Akihiko was taken aback by Shinjiro's words. He pointed at the boy, saying, "What's so wrong with that? You're not bad like you keep actin' like you are."

"Me? Not bad?" Shinjiro started to chuckle. "That's a good one. You hear what those other kids say about me, right?"

"So what?" Akihiko crossed his arms. "S'not like it's gonna stop me from being your friend."

What the boy just said didn't really start to sink in until Shinjiro looked up and finally turned to face him. Brown hues bore into him, scrutinizing, critical, watching for his reaction.

"Uh, um… that is… u-unless you REALLY w-wanna by all by yourself all the time." He failed miserably at trying to sound cool. In fact, he only looked more awkward than anything.

To his surprise, Shinjiro was actually smirking.

"W-what? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I take back what I said, Aki… you're not a pain after all."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You're the dumbest kid I've ever met."

* * *

Akihiko didn't know how long he, Shinjiro, and Miki sat around in the room, talking about random things. Well, Akihiko did most of the talking, anyway, mostly about what he remembered about his old home. He talked about his mother, his father, the number of stairs leading to the second floor of the house, the sliding doors, and the two trees planted for him and Miki in the backyard there.

Shinjiro mostly nodded and hummed to himself, listening attentively. It wasn't long before Akihiko noticed that the boy's eyes held a sense of anger and sadness, the same emotions Akihiko had all but tried to bury deep inside.

Those feelings started to stir inside him yet again, but he shook his head, as though trying to shake it off. Instead, he focused his gaze on Shinjiro, who sat staring at the wall with half-closed eyes.

"Shinji."

"What?"

"How come you don't wanna go to the festival tomorrow?"

"None of your business."

"Why?"

"Because I said so."

"Does it have something to do with your mom or dad?" Akihiko got up from the floor and moved to one of the beds, helping Miki climb on.

Shinjiro groaned in response, laying on his back and turning away from him. It was evident he had no intention of answering.

Akihiko frowned. "Okay then. If you don't wanna say so, then you should go to the festival."

"You can't make me go," Shinjiro shot back, his voice muffled by the pillow.

"Yes I can."

"Oh, yeah? What are you gonna do?"

"I'll tell the others you've been up here crying the whole time."

Shinjiro sat bolt upright. "I was not! I just had something in my eye, that's all!"

"… Both of them?"

"… Shut up! Idiot!"

* * *

While everyone else was having fun at the shrine, Akihiko, Shinjiro, and Miki were quite content sitting in the backyard, enjoying their watermelon slices to the fullest.

… They could always go to the festival next year.


	6. A Talk with Miki

**A/N: This is what I'd like to call the beginning of Part 2 of this fic. This chapter in particular was started as one thing, then turned into one really long conversation with Aki, Shinji, and Miki about school.**

**Thanks for comments, Deidara'sgirl19, Angeli-Ii-Demoni, and Rewritten Ennui. **

**To briefly answer Rewritten Ennui's review, I don't think I can avoid not making it depressing. Which is why I'm going to put it off for as long as I could. There are other scenarios to cover first. XD**

**Expect to see more of Miki from here on in! Hopefully things won't be dull with her around!  
**

**Slight Edit: I changed 'thin black ribbon' to 'bow tie.' It makes more sense that way.**

**I don't own Persona or its related stuff.**

* * *

**Chapter 6  
****A Talk with Miki**

_**Spring 1998**_

_Orphanage, 2__nd__ Floor, Boys' Room - Daytime_

It consisted of a white button-up shirt along with a navy blue sweater. The black bow tie was, of course, worn around the neck, and the pair of shorts that matched the jacket completed the entire set.

Shinjiro cocked an eyebrow as he stared at this ensemble. Those clowns at the school had to be kidding; THIS was their uniform? It was so… he couldn't find the right word in his vocabulary to describe it without getting himself in trouble.

With a sigh, he prepared to stuff the outfit in his school bag when a voice called out, "NO!"

Brown eyes looked up to Akihiko, who was standing in the middle of the room by the bed on the other side closest to the door. To his dismay, the silver haired boy was wearing the ridiculous thing he'd just had attempted to get out of his sight, along with a pair of black and white sneakers. "Don't do that, Shinji, you'll mess it up!"

The brunette watched him incredulously. "What the heck are you doing with that on, Aki?"

"Oh, me? I just wanted to try it on. But Shinji, you shouldn't…"

"You look like a dork."

Akihiko bristled. "It's not about how you look, Shinji, we have to wear the uniforms to school. It's in the rule book."

"I know that, I ain't stupid." Shinjiro slid off his bed, eyeing the uniform again with slight disgust. "You'd think they'd come up with somethin' better than that."

Whatever Akihiko had to say to that, however, was cut off when the door suddenly opened.

The four-year old girl's head emerged from behind the wood first, her short silver hair in twin pigtails and large gray eyes looking about in curiosity. She stepped in the room shortly after, tugging at the bottom of her powder blue dress in disapproval with one hand while tugging along her old toy rabbit in the other.

Akihiko's brows furrowed, but before he could speak, Shinjiro interrupted.

"What is it, Miki?"

The girl looked up at him, a small smile gracing her features. "What's Onii-chan and Shinji doing?" She noticed the uniform and backpack sitting on Shinji's bed. "What are those?"

"School stuff." The brunette scratched his head. Miki was alright and all, but she tended to ask too many questions and complain about dresses and skirts whenever she wore them. None of the other kids at the orphanage ever bothered to play with her, so she always tagged along with her brother and him.

"School? You're going to school? Miki wanna go, too!"

"Not until tomorrow," Akihiko told her in a voice Shinjiro could only describe as a poor imitation of how the characters in those stupid children's shows spoke to babies who watched them. "You're too little to go, Miki. When you get bigger…"

"I'm NOT LITTLE!" Miki stamped her foot with such ferocity she would have probably put a hole in the floor. "Miki can go to school, too! S'not fair!"

Shinjiro buried his face in his palm. She unfortunately seemed to have adopted a couple of Mai's annoying mannerisms. The "it's my way or else" part in particular. At least she wasn't obsessed with pink, she actually loathed that color.

"Look," he addressed the girl, "if you want to go so bad, you gotta follow some rules first."

Miki turned to him. "Rules? Like when Suoh tells ev'rybody what to do and what not to do?"

"Yeah, except a bunch of grown-ups thought of these, an' not just Reiko and Suoh." Shinjiro was glad she was catching on. "Do you wanna know?"

"Tell me, Shinji!" The girl jumped up and down, dropping her rabbit as she excitedly clapped her hands together.

"Yeah, tell her, Shinji," Akihiko egged him on with a smirk. The brunette could tell he was glad he wasn't the one doing the explaining. He seemed to be pretty good with stories and sometimes comforting his sister, but explaining serious things without treating her like a baby? Not so much.

"Alright then." Shinjiro sat cross-legged on the floor, the Sanada siblings following suit. "First off, everyone wears the same clothes. See how Aki looks? That's what all the boys gotta wear."

Miki looked back at her elder brother, scrunching her face up as she stared at him before returning her attention to the brunette. "But, those are dork clothes!"

"H-hey…" Akihiko looked dismayed and slightly upset.

"What do the girls wear, Shinji?"

Shinjiro knew he had to put on a show for this one. He crossed his arms as he looked directly into her eyes, knowing either way she would instantly look disgusted once he told her the answer. "It's the most terrible thing in the whole wide world, you know…"

"Worse than carrots an' peas?" Miki gasped. "Tell me, Shinji!"

The brunette closed his eyes, letting out a sigh and wearing a disgruntled expression. "The girls…" he paused, hearing the girl inhale sharply. "… they wear… skirts."

"Skirts? That's not fair!" Miki complained. "Miki's not gonna wear skirts or dresses, 'cause they're for girly girls!"

Akihiko seemed to finally decide he wanted in on this, too. "But, Miki," he said, pretending to look stricken, "you're a girly girl, too!"

Miki's hands flew to cover her mouth, as though he'd said something horrifying. "I-I am not! Miki's a girl, not a girly girl!" She stood up and glared at Shinjiro, trying to look as menacing as possible (which failed, as she only looked sickeningly cute). "Those grown-ups are mean! I'm not wearing a skirt!"

Shinjiro's face relaxed into the normal, unreadable expression he always wore. "Then I guess you can't go with us tomorrow."

Miki's cheeks puffed out as she pouted, swinging her toy rabbit around as her four-year old mind worked. "… What's the other rules?" she finally spoke, sitting down again.

"Well, you gotta be this many years old." Shinjiro held out his hands, fanning all five fingers with one and stretching out a thumb up with the other. He gave the girl a moment to count before he withdrew, crossing his arms again. She continued to count on her fingers before looking up at him with wide eyes.

"Six? I have to be six?"

"Yep. And how old are you?"

Miki started counting on her fingers again, before holding up her own hand, showing a few of her fingers. "Four!" Her brow furrowed again, and she started to pout once more. "Aww! That's not enough, Onii-chan!"

"Too bad." Akihiko sounded nonchalant for once.

"What am I s'posed to do? Onii-chan? Shinji?" The girl looked frantically at both boys. "How can I be six years?"

"You gotta wait," Shinjiro said, his voice calm so she settled down, "till your birthday."

"But Miki's birthday passed already," Miki whined.

"It'll come again," Akihiko chimed in, "like the festival. Only next year."

"Is it a really long time from now?"

"Nope. It'll be here before you know it."

"Then I'll be six?"

The silverette shook his head. "Not yet. You'll be five. You have to wait till the year after that. Then you'll be six."

Miki turned to Shinjiro again, unsure. "Shinji…"

"Aki's right," he confirmed flatly.

The pig-tailed girl looked down, letting everything soak in. She then cocked her head to the side slightly, leaning towards Akihiko. "Onii-chan."

"Yeah?"

"When I'm six, how many will you and Shinji be?"

"Eight," Shinjiro said before Akihiko could start counting on his fingers.

Miki pouted again. "S'not fair. I'm never gonna catch up if you don't wait for me."

"You're not supposed to catch up," he said, more bluntly this time. "That's why Aki's your big brother, 'cause he's s'posed to be bigger than you."

"Shinji…" Akihiko blinked, surprised at his friend's words.

"… Okay." Miki simply nodded, much to her brother's surprise. A smile returned to her face, and she rocked back and forth where she sat. "Miki wants to play with Onii-chan and Shinji now."

"Sure thing," her brother started up cheerfully, standing up. Before he could head for the door, however, Shinjiro grabbed his arm. "Oi! Lemme go, Shinji!"

"Moron," the brunette chided him, "You don't wanna mess up your uniform before tomorrow, do you?"

Comprehension finally dawned on the silver-haired boy as he tugged himself loose and grinned sheepishly at his friend. "I-I knew that, Shinji."

"Tch. Sure you did." Shinjiro looked over to Miki, who had gotten to her feet as well and gazed at the two boys. "You're gonna have to step out a moment."

"Eh? Why?"

"This is the BOYS' room, Miki. And you're not a boy."

"Oh!" The girl nodded once, picked up her rabbit, and ran to the door. "Hurry up! Miki wants Onii-chan to push her on the swing!" She swung it open, stepped out, and almost slammed it shut behind her.

The boys waited until her steps faded beyond the door, then exchanged looks. "Do I really look like a dork, Shinji?"


	7. The Ones Without Parents: Part  I

**A/N: This chapter was very slow to write. Some writer's block is to blame for that, and personally I'm not very satisfied with it. I apologize for the lackluster quality. **

**Onward to review responses:  
**

**Deidara'sgirl19: The aim with Miki was to start gearing her towards having a tomboyish sort of character. Considering the only two people she's always with are both boys, she's gained an intense dislike for dresses, skirts, and anything she deems too "girly" (stuffed animals are an exception, obviously). I'm glad you like her character, though. Even though she's only mentioned a tiny bit in-game, I really wanted to figure out what kind of personality she'd have.**

**Rewritten Ennui: Miki had been kind of hanging around for the first few chapters, being only two years old, and it's really hard for her at that age. As far as how she acts, it's kind of still in development, but I really want to develop the character. The downside is that I'm just going to end up depressing myself in the end, and it's really not fair. I don't really want to write that part…**

**Anyways, here it is. Aki and Shinji have embarked into new territory- elementary school. What kind of things await them here? I don't know. This little segment will run a couple of chapters or so.**

**If I owned any part of Persona 3 and related stuff, then I wouldn't be writing this story. And Shinji wouldn't have been around for only one month.**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**The Ones without Parents - I**

_Orphanage, 2__nd__ Floor, Bathroom - Early Morning_

Bow tie straight? Check.

Hair not as messy as yesterday? Check.

Shoes tied, and not to each other? Check.

Everything in backpack, and backpack on back? Check.

Akihiko beamed as he checked his reflection in the bathroom mirror. Everything from the top of his head to his shiny new shoes was perfect. His uniform had pressed to perfection- thanks to Suoh-san's hard work. He showed his teeth for a moment, although he had just brushed them just a few minutes ago. There was a small gap where a front tooth was missing, but that was okay. He still had the little bit of money in his pocket that was left behind when he placed it under his pillow a week ago.

When he climbed down from the stepstool a moment later, the door swung open, its squeaking hinges like nails on a chalkboard… well, if it was something he hadn't just seen on television. Akihiko's head snapped towards the doorway so fast his neck hurt, but it was he quickly dismissed it as nothing as a wide smile crept across his face.

Shinjiro stood in the entryway; his brown eyes unusually alight with fury. His usually shaggy hair, much to Aki's surprise, had been combed and brushed for once, and he was wearing the very clothes he hated- the uniform, pressed and all. Instead of the long socks and dress shoes Akihiko wore, Shinjiro had opted to wear shorter socks and sneakers.

"Hey, Shinji. What's up?"

"Shut up!" Shinjiro exploded. He ruffled his hair with his hands, muttering a string of indecipherable words under his breath (although Akihiko was sure one or two of them were things that would get him in trouble). "I HATE Suoh! Who cares about lookin' proper and stuff anyway? It's just school!"

Akihiko's head tilted slightly, watching as Shinjiro unbuttoned his jacket, fumbling with the fasteners and all but tearing off his bow tie. He then proceeded to toss the tie to the floor and step on it again and again.

"It's the first day, Shinji." The silverette tried to straighten his face, but to no avail. The brunette was not amused.

"Tch, I already know that." He shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked at the already crunched-up tie. "Let's just get this over with, Aki, Suoh's waitin' for us downstairs."

"You're scared, aren't you, Shinji?" Akihiko said, unable to contain his smile.

"Stupid. I ain't afraid of anything." Shinjiro turned away, but Akihiko could clearly see he was uncomfortable.

"Onii-chan! Shinji!"

Akihiko didn't know exactly when Miki had appeared in the hallway, but she regarded them with slight disgust as she pointed down the hall with her left hand while clutching her rabbit with her right.

"Suoh says to come downstairs or you'll be late for school," the girl said, cocking her head slightly as her gaze focused on Shinjiro. "Shinji, why are you crying?"

"I'm not cryin', Miki!" the boy snapped, taking off down the hall. Akihiko noted that he was rubbing at his face with a sleeve, and his sister didn't look the least bit convinced. Her large, curious gray eyes were on him now.

"Onii-chan, Shinji really stinks at lying."

* * *

_Iwatodai Elementary School - Early Morning_

They had heard of the word "self-conscious" from television, but didn't really know what it meant.

When Akihiko and Shinjiro arrived at the front gates of the building with Suoh, however, that was first word that came to their minds as more than several pairs of eyes gazed at them.

After all was said and done (greeting people, the Opening Ceremony, and all that other stuff), Akihiko and Shinjiro were standing at the entrance to the main lobby, gazing at Suoh as she put on her outside shoes.

"… And make sure you listen to your teacher… Don't make that face, Akihiko-kun; I'll remember her name eventually. I'll see you boys after school at the front gates, alright? Don't wrinkle your nose, Shinjiro, I'm not letting you two walk home by yourselves. Anyway, have a nice day, boys! Listen to your teacher and don't get into trouble!"

Before either boy could react, Suoh embraced Akihiko and ruffled Shinjiro's hair and trotted out the doors. Akihiko could tell without looking in a mirror that his cheeks and ears had turned pink. He turned his head ever so slightly to Shinjiro only to see that the brunette had buried his face in his hands.

"That woman… is milking this for all its worth," he muttered.

* * *

_Classroom 1-C - Morning_

Their classroom was near the end of the hallway on the west side of the school on the first floor, right by the gym. Their teacher was a bespectacled woman with black hair and eyes a few years older than Suoh, and she called herself Saito Eiko.

Akihiko and Shinjiro ended up with seats next to each other in the middle rows near the right side of the classroom. It was the first place Shinjiro sat, and Akihiko being Akihiko, merely sat beside him.

Contrary to Shinjiro's usually indifferent expression, he had an air of nervousness about him. Akihiko didn't dare say anything to him because the brunette would just call him an idiot and find some way to hide his face. He had tried to fix his hair after Suoh ruffled it, but he had quickly given up on that.

There were about twenty or so other students in the class; eleven other boys and the rest girls. There was a slight air of nervousness, but as morning classes went on, it seemed to have dissipated.

* * *

Before long, it was time for lunch. At once, the other students got into groups and started talking amongst themselves. Akihiko and Shinjiro pretty much stayed where they were, only venturing to retrieve the lunches that were prepared for them that morning.

"Shinji, you should really have some of these fried eggs, they're really good. Reiko-san really pulled out the stops, didn't she?"

"Whatever," Shinjiro replied flatly. "Stop talking with your mouth full, Aki. Food's flying out your mouth."

"Oh, sorry." Akihiko swallowed with a gulp and smirked.

Shinjiro wasn't amused. "Idiot."

They continued in silence until four girls approached them, their expressions wary. "Um, excuse me," one of them, a redhead with pigtails spoke up.

The boys turned to the trio, the silverette slightly curious, the brunette thoroughly annoyed.

"Hmm?" Akihiko's head tilted slightly, still chewing on some eggs. A few grains of rice were stuck to his face.

"What do you want?" Shinjiro sounded much ruder than usual.

The girls looked taken aback, but only for a moment. Another girl with short light brown hair spoke up this time. "You two came here this morning with Orphan Lady, right?"

"Orphan Lady?" Akihiko's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"You know, Orphan Lady. She's from that place where all the kids without moms and dads go," the third girl, who had long dark hair, said. "You live there, don't you?"

"What of it?" Shinjiro had given them his full attention now, glaring at them with arms crossed. "If you got something to say to us about it, then spit it out. If you don't, then bug off. Didn't anybody tell you it's rude to bother people when they're eating?"

The girls were dumbstruck. For a moment, no one said anything. Shinjiro went right back to eating his lunch, as though nothing had even happened.

"You're not a very nice boy," Pigtails said to him. "I'm telling Saito-sensei."

"Go ahead," the brunette told her. "I don't care."

When Pigtails puffed her cheeks and ran off, Akihiko was strangely reminded of Miki. Second Girl sighed and ran off after her, with Third Girl at her heels. The boys watched them go, and then exchanged looks.

"What's with those girls?"

"Be glad they're gone, Aki. At least now I can eat in peace."

"… Shinji, that wasn't very nice."

* * *

Several more kids in their class came up to them and attempted to ask them the same thing after school. Shinjiro refused to speak anymore, but his glare was enough to deter anyone else from bothering them. Instead of Orphan Lady, the kids in class 1-C were talking about Scary Boy and Weird Kid.

Akihiko didn't like it at all. People coming up to him and asking him stuff. It was worse than being stared at. And then they expected him and Shinji to answer them and got mad when they didn't.

Suoh gave them a warm greeting at the gates, just as she said she would, and they all walked back to the orphanage in silence. Neither boy would speak, but they could agree that their first day of school was nothing they thought it would be. It was a lot worse.

* * *

_Orphanage, 1__st__ Floor, Den - Late Afternoon_

"Onii-chan!" Miki threw her arms around her brother as soon as he set foot inside. When Shinjiro stepped in after him, she all but squealed his nickname and hugged him too.

When she realized that neither boy had returned her greeting, she stepped back, looking at them with worry. "Onii-chan? Shinji?"

"They just came back from school, Miki-chan," Suoh said as she came in last and closed the door behind her. "Let them get settled in, okay?"

Miki could only nod in response, her mind working. When Suoh left the three of them alone, she started kicking her foot at the air and tugging at the bottom of her shirt as though trying to stretch it over her shorts. It was a habit she'd developed whenever she thought something didn't seem right.

"I'm sorry… Did Miki do something wrong?"

The boys immediately focused on her, eyes widened.

"What? Why are you apologizing?" Akihiko said, his voice unusually high.

"You didn't do anything." Shinjiro seemed mad.

"Then… then why didn't you say hi to me?" Miki made sure she was being heard now, speaking a little louder.

The boys went silent again. This just would not do, the lone girl thought. So she did what she best- she got fussy.

She stamped her foot and puffed out her cheeks. "Onii-chan!" she yelled. "Shinji!"

"Quit it, Miki, I'm not in the mood," Shinjiro commanded, silencing her at once. There was a look in her eyes that scared her, and she unconsciously backed away from them.

Akihiko got mad at him. "Shinji!"

"Can it, Aki. I ain't in the mood to talk to you, either. Just leave me alone." The brunette stalked out the front room, leaving the siblings.

Miki rubbed her eyes, trying to get rid of any tears. She didn't want either of the boys seeing them, she wasn't a baby. "Onii-chan, what's wrong with Shinji?"

"… Miki…"

"Yeah?"

"Um… you'll have to go play by yourself for a while. I really don't wanna talk, either."

"Eh? Why?" Miki couldn't believe her ears.

"Miki… please…" Her brother sidestepped her and left the front room as well, leaving her alone.

It would be a while before they told her just why they were being so crummy that day.


	8. The Ones Without Parents: Part II

**A/N: This one finished itself quickly. I'm pretty suprised. o.o Anywho, things are going to get a bit depressing here... sort of. For a bit, anyway. Of course, if you think this is bad, then that other thing down the road is gonna be ten times worse. Or just as bad. **

**Warnings - There's crappy kid drama and Shinji's got a mild potty mouth. Did I mention crappy kid drama?**

**Lastly, I think I can say I've got a couple of regular readers here. XD Thanks very much for reviews/faves/alerts, guys, seriously. I never really expected to receive any.  
Review responses will be at the end, to keep this top note up here short.**

**I don't own Persona 3/FES/Portable and the related terms/concepts/whatever. They belong to Atlus, d00d.**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**The Ones without Parents - II**

Miki was not happy.

Sure, the orphanage was empty, but that was because all the big kids went to school.

Sure, that left her with all the toys she could play with, but aside from Usa-kun, she didn't have any to call her own.

Without Aki and Shinji, she was almost always alone.

To make things worse, she still felt alone even when they were there. They always had their books in front of them, doing homework and practicing their writing.

They didn't sit in the backyard together as much as they used to. And whenever they did, no one said anything. Akihiko would get annoyed and start complaining about the kids at school but it always ended with Shinji saying the same thing: "Shut up, Aki."

* * *

_Naganaki Shrine - Daytime_

"Don't touch! It hurts!"

Akihiko was gingerly holding his swollen, bruised knee, an unfortunate result of trying to run his way up the slide. At some point, Miki observed, he slipped and tumbled backwards, banging his knee in the process.

"Stupid," Shinjiro was chiding him, as usual, "I told you not to do it. Now look at you."

"I almost made it, though."

"Onii-chan only took three steps," Miki spoke up, pulling on the bottom of her red shirt. "Then you fell."

"You were keeping count?" Her brother's eyes widened.

The brunette sighed. "Whatever. It needs to get- Miki, don't poke it!"

The younger silverette hastily withdrew her outstretched arm, lifting up her old stuffed rabbit. "It wasn't me, it was Usa-kun!"

"… You're a bad liar."

"It still hurts really bad, Shinji," Akihiko complained, wincing. "I think it's broken."

"Then why don't you get it cut off, Weird Kid?"

Miki, Akihiko, and Shinjiro looked up to see a small group of boys standing by the horizontal bars, two or three of which looked pretty wary looking at the trio. The one who spoke had light brown hair and dark eyes, glaring at them with arms crossed.

"What do you want?" Shinjiro asked, his voice low.

"What does it look like?" A second boy stepped forward. "We wanna play here, and you bratty orphans are in the way."

Miki decided she didn't like these boys. They weren't nice like her brother and Shinji when he wasn't mad.

"You're mean!" she said, glaring at them as nastily as she could. "We're NOT orphans!"

All was silent, and all eyes were on the small girl. Then, the group of boys started to laugh.

"Hey, check this out, Daikichi! She's says they're not orphans!"

"Is she serious? Who is this girl?"

"This has got to be Weird Kid's sister or something. They've got the same hair!"

"Leave her alone!" Akihiko snarled, standing up. At once, he nearly stumbled over; it was too much for his bad knee.

The boys only laughed harder. "What are you gonna do, stupid?" the first boy managed to ask.

"Gonna try an' fight us just for messin' with your baby sister? You're such a dummy!" the second boy added.

"You can't do nothin'! Your leg's messed up, moron!"

"S-stop it! Stop making fun of Onii-chan!" Miki had been trying to hold back her tears this whole time. She didn't think this would happen; she just wanted those kids to leave her and her brother and Shinji alone. Now they were bullying them.

While she was rubbing her eyes, she noticed that Shinjiro was gazing at them, but he hadn't said anything else. The third boy noticed this and nudged the leader.

"Hey, Daikichi, that kid there's lookin' serious."

"Oh?" The leader's eyes lazily shifted to the shorter brunette. "What're you lookin' at? You think you're tough or somethin'? You may scare those other first-graders at school, but that ain't gonna work on us."

"Unless you're scared," a fourth kid chimed in, laughing.

"Go on, get off the slide," a fifth added, "You're in our way!"

The atmosphere was noticeably heavy. Shinjiro took one look at Miki, who was already backing away. He looked back at the boys, keeping his face impassive as he spoke.

"Bug off."

The boy called Daikichi's face twisted in anger. Before Miki knew it, Shinjiro had fallen to the ground as the punch connected with this stomach.

"SHINJI!"

Akihiko, in as much pain as he was in, all but threw himself at the group of older boys. He, too, was down for the count once another boy kicked him in his bad leg and shoved him into Shinji.

"ONII-CHAN!"

"Daikichi, this girl's screaming's getting on my nerves."

"Do something, then, stupid. Get her to shut up."

"Like what?"

"I dunno, take her rabbit or something."

"NO!" Miki held her rabbit closer to her. "GO 'WAY!"

"Tch, shut up!" A hand snatched at the toy's ears, and the sound of tearing cloth was unmistakable.

* * *

_Orphanage, Boys' Room - Evening_

Akihiko sat on his bed, leg propped up on a few extra pillows, knee wrapped in gauze with an ice pack sitting on top.

Shinjiro was curled underneath his duvet, seething, not in the mood to talk and turned towards the window.

Miki was on the floor, futilely trying to dry her eyes and stop her sniffling. The only possession she truly called her own was no longer with her.

It had been torn apart at the shrine.

The laughing was still haunting her even now as a fresh wave of tears came, and they refused to stop.

Her brother looked forlornly at her. He wanted to comfort the girl, she knew, but he couldn't take two steps without complaining about his leg. He wouldn't be able to go to school until it got better.

It was alright. She had to learn to be a big girl some time. But it still hurt.

Shinji was just being Shinji. He never wanted people to see his face when he was feeling bad.

It, too, was alright. He was crying, just like Miki was. It was silent, but she knew.

"O-onii-chan." It was the first word she managed to say coherently since they all got back from the shrine.

Akihiko looked at her, but he didn't reply.

"Onii-chan, what's orphan mean?" The word she was called earlier that day. More than anything else, she was confused about it.

"Miki…" The older silverette bit his lip. "It's… it's when…"

"It's what grown-ups call kids like us." Shinjiro's tone was blunt and harsh. "Kids who don't have any parents end up here cuz they ain't got any other family to take 'em in. That's why we're orphans. That's why this place is called an orphanage."

Miki brought her knees up to her chest, gazing at the brunette. He in turn sat up so he could look her right in the face.

It was probably the first time she noticed that he seemed like he was lacking something; she could see it in his eyes. There was a kind of emptiness in them that she really didn't understand.

Still, the words the boy spoke really stung her. She looked up at Akihiko. "Onii-chan…"

He already seemed to know what she wanted to ask, because he averted her eyes.

"Onii-chan, do we have a mom and dad?"

"… Th-they…" Akihiko bit his lip. She could tell he didn't want to talk about it, and was struggling to do so. "… you were small… when they…"

"… Died?" Miki finished his sentence.

"Tch. Can't ever tell anything to her straight," Shinjiro grunted.

"Can it, Shinji!" Akihiko snapped, glaring at him. "Miki's MY sister, not yours!"

Miki could see that frightening look in the brunette's eyes again. "You damn moron," he said through clenched teeth, "whether you're related or not's got nothin' to do with it. If you're gonna tell somebody somethin' then spit it out. You're just like those stupid kids at school, beatin' 'round the bush and avoidin' everything 'stead of just being straight with stuff."

He climbed off his bed now, and walked towards Akihiko's bed and stood right in front of him, fists clenched. "You got a lot of nerve to get mad at me when you're the one bein' stupid."

"I ain't stupid, Shinji!"

"Then what are you, Aki? Look at you! You can't do squat cuz you hurt yourself bein' slow, then you try an' pick a fight with a bunch of clowns!"

"They wouldn't leave Miki alone!"

Miki covered her ears. The shouting… she couldn't take the shouting…

"So what? You got yourself beat up for nothing, dumbass!"

"Shut up! You don't know anything, Shinji!"

"Onii-chan…" Miki shut her eyes tight; she couldn't stand to see them like this…

"I gotta look out for Miki! I'm the only one who can! Because…"

"Because your mom and dad died? What a load of crap!"

"… Shinji… please…" She pressed her hands over her ears, trying to block out the noise…

"Take that back!"

"OR YOU'LL DO WHAT? Try and fight me? Go ahead, Aki, give it a shot!"

"… STOP FIGHTING!"

Gray and brown eyes turned to Miki, who was glaring at them with tears streaming down her cheeks. "S-stop fighting," she sobbed. "… Please…"

The two boys exchanged defiant glares. "Don't think for a second it's all about you, Aki," the brunette warned.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the silver-haired youth said testily.

"… You haven't seen anything that I have." Shinjiro stalked back over to his bed, all but flopping on it. "Not a thing."

* * *

Jeering faces, shouting monsters, and the memory of seeing her only possession being torn from her small hands plagued Miki's dreams that night.

Suoh's presence was no comfort to her at all. For the first time that the young girl can remember, she had never felt so scared and alone.

… Her world was all topsy-turvy and broken, and it was all _THEIR_ fault.

* * *

**A/N (Round Two!): Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I actually don't have that many more scenarios in mind at the moment that still need to be written (Summer Festival again, Shinji's watch, stolen toy, and Christmas!) but I don't really want to jump ahead to the major turning point in the story so soon. So, I'm taking suggestions. What other things do you wanna read in The Old Days? A cameo by P3's/P3P's MC, FeMC, or both in a scene? An appearance by Officer Kurosawa? Send me a PM or write a comment. I'll pick a few and see what I'm working with. :)**

**To answer Reviews:**

**SourL - Yep, that's Shinji for ya. Someone's gotta look out for hot-headed Aki, after all. Of course, there _are _times that Aki doesn't listen, and, well, you see how that turns out here.**

**Rewritten Ennui - Shinji may actually end up ditching school soon enough, though. Aki may follow because he's Aki. And Aki's a dork (sorry, Aki fans, that had to be said! -.o; ).**

**Deidara'sgirl19 - Sadly, while Shinji has gotten better at putting up a front, there are times when it fails. That was one of those times. And in ten years, it'll fail again during P3P. ;p**

**Last thing: I'm still writing the second chapter to Episode Alternate. Don't know when that will be up, so don't be surprised if this story updates again before it. And now I must go to sleep.**


	9. Lesson to Learn

**A/N: Argh, sorry taking so long to update this story... Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the scenario requests! First one will in a couple of chapters, had to wrap up the bit of drama left over.**

**I must thank you guys again for reviews and suggestions. Even if I don't get any, I'm still going to finish this story, no matter how long it takes. I'm writing about my two favorite characters, after all.**

**Also, writer's block is an f-ing pain. I'm sorry if this chapter isn't up to par with the others. **

**Lastly, several people did request a cameo by the protagonists. I can't quite say when that'll be, but it could be as soon as next chapter. I'm still planning, actually. ^^;**

**Persona Series and other related stuff belongs to Atlus.**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

**Lesson to Learn**

The atmosphere around the three of them remained heavy and silent even after Akihiko's knee got better after a couple of weeks.

While the boys were slightly more civil with each other (they didn't talk, though) when Miki was around, she could still catch the occasional exchange of venomous glares before they turned away and pretended the other didn't exist.

As much as she loved Akihiko, the boy was around her way too much now. As soon as he got back from school, he proceeded to spend almost all his free time with her, and pointing out things in his homework that she would learn when she eventually started school.

While this was very nice of him, she saw Shinjiro sitting off by himself, pouring over his math homework, counting on his fingers for a moment before grunting and tossing his school things aside, books and all. As soon as Akihiko noticed this, he gathered up his own things, stuck them in his bag, and dragged Miki off to another room in the orphanage while glaring angrily at Shinjiro and ignoring the girl's protests.

After another few days similar to this, and she started to grow tired of it.

"Onii-chan, why are you mad at Shinji?" she asked while he tried to show her some more addition problems.

The silver-haired boy stared at her for a moment before closing his math book and putting it in his school bag. He completely ignored her question.

"Onii-chan," she pressed on, "how come you won't talk to Shinji?"

Once again, she was ignored. Akihiko pulled out his Japanese homework and exercise book. His expression looked as though he were trying not to let his anger get the better of him.

She inhaled deeply, preparing to yell to get his attention, but the annoyed look in his gray eyes stopped her.

"Quit it, Miki, I'm right here."

Pleased with herself, she smiled and proceeded to ask the exact same question she just spoke a minute ago.

"How come you won't talk with Shinji?"

"Can it wait until later?" The girl wasn't pleased to see her brother's eyebrows knitted together. "I'm busy."

At that point, it dawned on her; Akihiko was doing this on purpose. Was it because of that fight they had? It had deeply upset her to see them fighting, but that felt like such a long time ago now. She just couldn't see why they still weren't talking to each other. And there was no way she was going to get any answers from the silver-haired boy concentrating on his homework in order to avoid talking.

Silently, she hopped off his bed, looking back at him as he stared at her in complete shock, and headed towards the door.

"Miki, where are you going? I thought…"

"Since Onii-chan won't talk to Miki," the girl huffed, pausing for a moment, "Miki's gonna talk to Shinji."

There was a moment of silence, then Akihiko returned his gaze to his books; this time, he really did look angry.

"Fine then. Do what you want." His tone sounded just as intense and harsh as it could be.

Deciding to fume outside the room, Miki blinked back her tears as best she could and stomped outside the boys' room, slamming the door shut. She didn't care that he jerked his head back up at her when she did, but she made sure he heard her shrieking at the doorknob and kicking the door before running down the hall.

If he did see her tears, then she wanted him to feel bad.

* * *

_Orphanage, 1__st__ Floor, Kitchen/Dining Area - Daytime_

His movements were mechanical at best.

Brushing some of his shaggy, dark brown hair from in front of his eyes, Shinjiro removed three eggs from the carton in the refrigerator, aware of the pair of eyes that watched him carefully.

Climbing onto a stepstool nearby, he set them down on the table and stared at them intently.

"I'll help you out with this one," Reiko's voice spoke from behind him. "I know you won't drop 'em, but I'm not too keen on you using a knife to break them."

The old woman was standing right next to him a moment later, cracking the shells on the edge of the bowl-slowly so he could see everything she did- and then using a whisk to beat them.

A girl would love to be standing here right now, but all of them were in another room, playing with their dolls. Mai would be running up the orphanage's phone bill again talking to her middle school friends again in the upstairs office.

Shinjiro was here now, and there was nothing any of them could do about it.

Being in the kitchen had an effect on Shinjiro he didn't quite understand. At first, he'd just sit and watch as Reiko prepared meals, but since the incident at the shrine, he felt the need to just… do something.

Obviously against her better judgment, Reiko handed him a small fruit knife (very sharp, but perfect for his hands) along with a few apples. The small band-aids covering the tips of some of his fingers and one bandage on his palm was more than enough to teach him how to not be clumsy with a knife, which was now kept in a locked drawer once Reiko discovered he'd been sneaking into the kitchen to peel apples when he got hungry.

He winced for the briefest of moments as Reiko's calloused fingers brushed against the bandaged palm; it still hurt when touched, and it was the most recent of those small wounds.

"You got all that, right?" the old woman was telling him as she stepped away. "Go get those onions and peppers I chopped up before. I was gonna leave it plain, but I think this one deserves a more 'Western' flair of sorts."

The brunette simply nodded, turning to the table behind him. As he reached for one of the bowls, he paused.

Was that… crying he was hearing?

Reiko had realized he was taking too long, because she asked him what the matter was. He completely ignored it, of course, and headed towards the kitchen door, swinging it open.

Standing against the wall opposite the entryway, he found the silver-haired four-year old, pigtails neatly combed as always, tugging at the bottom of her dress with one hand while hastily wiping away tears with the other.

All previous concentration and thought on his cooking lesson- if he could even call it one- was instantly pushed aside. He opened his mouth to speak the first thing that came to mind now, his voice slightly hoarse from lack of use.

"It's about Aki, ain't it?"

Miki nodded with a hiccup, and then proceeded to cling to Shinjiro's hoodie and weep into his shirt.

The boy's eyes widened, obviously taken aback by this. He could only awkwardly place a hand on the girl's shoulder before Reiko's shadow loomed over them.

"Come on in, then, you two. There are chairs you can sit at, ya know."

* * *

Some moments later, Reiko set down two plates of rice topped with half an omelet. Miki mumbled her thanks and tore into it immediately, flicking grains of rice everywhere and not caring if the egg had those green and red peppers she hated so much. If she had complained… well, the last thing she needed right now was a lecture, Shinjiro thought. Her _brother_, on the other hand…

The brunette looked down at his own half-empty plate. This was getting out of hand. Miki's tearful explanation of the previous exchange between her and Akihiko was making him feel angry, and he didn't really quite know why. He had to stand aside as Reiko led her to one of the chairs, taking the seat across the table from her. Nevertheless, he continued to look impassive as he slowly continued eating.

It wasn't until Reiko had stepped out the kitchen to get something that the young girl finally spoke.

"Shinji, are you mad at onii-chan?" Her expression was still sullen, and those large gray eyes of hers bore into him.

"No," he replied flatly, pushing his plate aside. He'd given up on finishing the meal he'd tried to help cook. Keyword there being "tried."

"Then how come Shinji won't talk to onii-chan?" Miki said, starting to sound distressed. "Miki tried to ask onii-chan, but onii-chan won't answer me!"

"Cuz Aki's actin' stupid."

"Onii-chan's not stupid!"

Shinjiro groaned, burying his face in one hand. Of all the times to be here alone with this little girl, this was definitely the worst. "I said he's ACTIN' stupid. S'cause of that thing at the shrine when… you know…" He trailed off, remembering those older kids that beat them up and tore Miki's favorite doll apart… His stomach twisted uncomfortably.

"Shinji? What'sa matter? Why are your hands balled up?"

The girl's voice broke his train of thought. Shinjiro unclenched his fingers, looking at them in mild surprise. He wasn't even aware he was doing so, then looked up at Miki, who stared back at him with concern. He averted his gaze immediately. "S'nothing…"

He started to get up, but he paused. "Miki."

"Hmm?"

"I… I'll talk to Aki. I ain't promising anything, though."

The smile had brightened her face as soon as the words tumbled awkwardly from his lips. "Really? Yay!"

She hopped off her chair, went under the table to the other side where he stood, and threw her arms around him, burying her face in his hoodie again. "Thank you, Shinji! You're the best!"

Miki was happily skipping out the kitchen a moment later when Reiko returned. One look at the brunette, and she could tell he looked way out of his comfort zone.

"She seems to have gotten outta her funk. You're getting better… 'Shinji.'"

Shinjiro glared at her, trying to gather what was left of his shattered composure. When he spoke, his voice was slightly hoarse like when he first spoke to Miki almost an hour ago.

"Better at what?"

* * *

"What do you want, Shinji?"

Akihiko was giving him an intense glare; he was not in the mood to speak to anyone right now. Shinjiro was not helping matters any for him.

"… To talk."

"Talk to Miki. She'll be more than happy to see you." Akihiko brought his book closer to his face, as though trying to escape into it to get away from the brunette.

"I saw her today. You made her cry again."

"So what? You gonna call me stupid like you always do?"

"… No."

The answer took the silver-haired boy by surprise. Gray eyes stared directly into brown; there was no hint of falsehood in them. He quickly recovered, however, and proceeded to bury his face in his book again. "… So, what do you want?"

The next thing he knew, Shinjiro had lifted the book from his hands and tossed it aside carelessly. Akihiko glared at him again, face contorted with anger.

"What'd ya do that for, Shinji?"

"Can't talk with that thing in front of ya." The brunette's tone didn't change the whole time. "So talk."

"About what?"

"Whatever."

Akihiko stared at him incredulously. "What kinda answer is that?"

"Just is. So talk."

* * *

There's a method to one's madness… at least that's how Shinjiro heard it from those stupid television characters.

And it wasn't even his idea; Reiko just said to try it.

"_You've all been through a lot. Sure, you've both got the 'no parent' thing, but the major difference with you and Akihiko-kun is Miki-chan. Miki is not only his only sister, but all the family he's got left in the world. What you see as 'acting stupid', he sees as trying to protect the one thing he hasn't lost. Try to see things his way… I mean, you two _are_ friends, right? Help him out, and he'll help you out, too. You'll see."_

The hot-headed, silver-haired boy who always leapt before he looked and acted out whenever possible, kept plenty of things inside, too.

When that one small fact dawned on him, everything else he did made more sense all of a sudden.

Shinjiro and Akihiko weren't so different from each other after all.


	10. The Bug

**A/N: Hello again! Things have been really slow for me lately. Sorry for the long wait. x_x; ****This chapter is a little shorter than the others, only about four pages in Word (others were at least six). This scenario was requested by SourL. I'm not sure what to think of it, really, so if it sucks, I apologize! **

**Thanks again for reviews! I won't answer any this time, as I don't want to ramble on and such.**

**Persona belongs to Atlus.**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**The Bug**

* * *

_Orphanage, 2__nd__ Floor, Boys' Room - Late Afternoon_

Everyone around the orphanage was catching it that week.

The adults called it the bug. It took a couple of hours for Akihiko and Shinjiro to convince Miki that it was something she did NOT want to catch.

"You gotta watch yourself, Miki," Akihiko was telling her. "Don't touch things other sick kids have been playing with, or you'll catch it, too."

"Why not?" the girl whined pitifully.

"You don't wanna get sick, do you?" Akihiko crossed his arms, looking sternly at her.

"No…" Miki pouted, kicking her feet at the air.

"Then listen to me an' Shinji and Suoh-san and Reiko-san, okay?"

Shinjiro had stood by as the "lecture" continued. Akihiko was only echoing what the adults had been telling them since the other day, when one of the older kids had fallen ill. Since then, three more kids were rendered bedridden, including Masaru, one of the older boys.

Masaru had recently taken it upon himself to make the others as miserable as he was, sneezing and coughing over everything he could despite Suoh's warnings. She was too busy tending to the other kids to really stop him, however, until Reiko started a crackdown on those spreading germs on purpose.

Currently, two of the extra rooms used for storage were cleaned out so that he and Mai, the oldest child in the orphanage, could have their own space. The contents of those rooms were shifted to either the attic or the basement.

"… I KNOW already, onii-chan!" Miki said loudly. "You don't have to tell me anymore!"

"Jus' as long as you get it." Akihiko crossed his arms, looking sternly at her.

"Course she does," Shinjiro finally said, looking almost thoughtful. "If you keep pestering her, Aki, she won't listen to you anymore."  
An evil grin appeared on the lone girls face. "Yeah, Miki won't listen to onii-chan no more!" she sang, sticking her tongue out at her brother.

The brunette buried half his face in his hand. "… You've been hangin' around us too much, Miki…"

* * *

_Boys' Room - The Next Day_

He never remembered feeling so sluggish in his life. His limbs ached and felt heavy, his head throbbed, and the bright light hurt his eyes.

A fit of coughing racked his small body, and left his chest feeling sore.

There was no joking around… He had definitely become one of its victims…

Shinjiro curled up on his bed, pulling the blanket over himself. He felt way too cold.

The door on the other side of the room opened, followed by several pairs of footsteps.

"I tried to get him up, but he just groaned and turned away," Akihiko loudly shouted. "S'why me an' Miki came to get you, Suoh-san."

"Suoh, is Shinji sick?"

The brunette pulled the duvet over his head. Great, _he_ came back. The boy had tried shaking him to get him out of bed earlier that morning, but Miki was shouting at him to stop after a while. It only made Shinjiro's head hurt worse.

"Shinjiro," Suoh chirped, her gentle voice wafting to the boy's ears.

He only groaned in response. Adult or no adult, he did not want to move. However, he was powerless to stop the young woman from removing the blanket from over his head. Harsh sunlight from the window invaded his eyes once again, and he shut them tightly and buried his face in his pillow, shivering.

"Shinji!" Akihiko sounded especially worried. He was a hothead, but he was an overly sentimental hothead.

"Akihiko-kun," Suoh addressed him, "Go get my aunt. Tell her to bring a thermometer."

* * *

"… Well, the good news is, we're not rushing him to the hospital. S'only round 100. Any higher, and, well, you get the picture."

The two women stood in the hallway just a ways from the boys' room. The older frowned in concern as she looked at the younger. "You're getting a little better, Suoh. You didn't panic as much."

Her niece glared at her, cheeks reddening in embarrassment. "Oba-san!"

"S'a complement. I'm surprised, though. Shinjiro-kun never gets sick. This makes what, the second time? Yeah, it's the second…" Reiko closed her eyes, nodding to herself. "Anyway, good thing you acted fast. Otherwise…"

"Shinjiro would have ended up like him," said Suoh, as though to complete the sentence.

"Now, that's not what I was going to say, Suoh…"

"But it's the truth." The younger woman gazed directly into her aunt's brown eyes, her own reflecting her inner emotions. "I won't let it happen to any other child. I failed him. I failed my own son, Oba-san."

The older woman took a step towards her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Stop beating yourself up about it, Suoh. Hideki-chan was already a sickly boy, and everyone, including us, did all we could for him."

Suoh bit her lip. She looked she wanted to say something, but couldn't. After a moment, she finally turned away and headed downstairs, leaving her aunt alone.

Reiko sighed heavily. "Tch, you're acting like it's all on you," she said bitterly to herself. "I know you still miss him, but using Aragaki so that you don't have to face it is just wrong…" She pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger, shaking her head. "Hideki-chan, your mother is driving me to drink…"

* * *

To Akihiko, it was a truly worrisome sight.

Shinjiro was reduced to a shell of what he once was. After he had come back with Reiko, both she and Suoh continued checking over the boy for several more minutes. Shinjiro was cranky throughout the whole ordeal, and now that they weren't there, he seemed a bit more peaceful, albeit bedridden with a blanket up to his neck and a cold cloth on his forehead.

The silver-haired youth sat on the bed next to where Shinjiro slept, with Miki keeping him company, as always. She looked as though she wanted to reach for him, but resigned herself to leaning her head on her brother's side, gazing at the dozing child with doleful eyes.

"Ne, onii-chan…" Miki shifted so that she was looking right in Akihiko's face. "Onii-chan, do you think Shinji'll get better?"

"Course he will. Why?" Akihiko looked puzzled.

"Shinji looked real mad after Reiko gave him that red stuff. He musta hated it…" Miki's voice had dropped to a whisper, making it hard to hear her.

"That red stuff is medicine. It's nasty, but grown-ups say it's to make you better when you're sick." The silverette motioned to the small bottle on the side table between them and Shinjiro's bed. "That's it right there."

Miki stared at it with narrowed eyes, scrutinizing every detail. "How's it supposed to make sick people better if it tastes bad?"

"It's the same as vegetables," said Akihiko plainly. "Except that you HAVE to take medicine so that you don't stay sick."

"… Noisy…"

The Sanada siblings froze. Slowly, their heads turned to Shinjiro, who was looking right at them, although he seemed too tired to look annoyed. "… You're… noisy," he repeated before he started coughing, making the cloth on his forehead slide off.

"Oh… er… um… sorry, Shinji." Akihiko looked embarrassed. "Miki just…"

"… Quiet…" Shinjiro's eyelids were already drooping. "… dummy…"

It took all the self-control he had to keep his mouth shut and not angrily yell at the brunette. Even when ill, Shinjiro never failed to insult him. Perhaps it meant that, in his own way, he was reassuring Akihiko that he'd be alright, or that he really needed to adopt an inside voice.

He felt his sister leaning on his arm and shoulder. Turning his head to look, the small girl was rubbing her eyes.

"Don't fall asleep, Miki," Aki said softly, stifling a yawn of his own. "At least not 'til Reiko-san and Suoh-san come back."

"M'not tired," the girl mumbled groggily, still rubbing at her eyes. The effort proved futile as her hands drooped anyway, and she slumped backwards onto the bed.

Akihiko chuckled lightly, sliding off so he move the girl's feet onto the bed while he sat on the floor.

After a few moments, he started tipping over sideways. The silverette jumped suddenly, forcing his eyes wide open and his posture upright. He didn't last long, however, and he, too, drifted to slumber.


	11. Hide and Seek?

**A/N: Argh... Writer's block and lack of inspiration are a terrible combination. I really didn't mean for this story to tank the way it did. I had been working on this chapter for a LONG time (a couple of months in fact) writing and rewriting parts of it so it wouldn't be full of fail. I don't know how this one turned out, but I really hope its ok. This is the second of the scenario requests.**

**Anyways, sorry again! Any comments/criticisms are appreciated.**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**Hide and Seek?**

**Orphanage, 2****nd**** Floor Hallway – Daytime**

The door slowly opened with an audible creak. It paused, as though the person holding onto the knob didn't know what to expect. A moment later, the silver-haired boy's head poked out from the entryway, gray eyes looking back and forth warily. The rest of his body followed soon after as he crept into the hall. When he was certain the coast was clear, Akihiko started running towards the stairs and almost reached the landing when…

"Onii-chan!"

He stopped in his tracks at once, turning his head ever so slightly to see Miki running towards him, wearing the brightest yellow shirt he'd ever seen with a denim skirt and white sandals. She came to a stop right beside him, her identical pair of gray surveying him with curiosity. "Onii-chan, what are you doing?"

"Shush!" Akihiko hissed, putting a finger to his lips. "You'll give me away!"

The girl's brows creased together. "But…"

"I'm tryin' to get to base before Shinji finds me!"

"… I'm right here."

"Gyah!"

Miki quickly stepped Akihiko as he jumped and made a beeline for the shaggy-haired brunette on the other side of the landing. "Shinji!"

"Yo," Shinjiro greeted flatly, gray-brown eyes focusing on the other boy. "And Aki, you fail at hide-and-seek."

Upon hearing the last three words, the small girl's expression suddenly brightened. "You're playing hide-and-seek? Ooh, ooh, Miki wants to play!"

"Eh?" Akihiko's jaw looked like it was going to drop to the floor. "But…"

"Sure," Shinjiro replied with a shrug.

"Shinji…"

"It's only the two of us, anyway. S'not like anyone's goin' out their way to play with her."

All other protest died in Akihiko's throat. It was true; no one else bothered to play with Miki. She was the youngest child in the orphanage at age four, and no matter how much she asked other children, she was either stood up, ignored, or flat-out refused. Mai and her friends reduced her to tears once by calling her a "tomboyish brat." It took all Shinji had to keep her older brother from fuming at the older girls and comforting Miki at the same time. When Reiko joked that the brunette would make a girl proud someday, he muttered something under his breath and pulled his burgundy hood over his head in attempt to hide his reddened face.

"Alright, then," the silverette said, "but you're the one who's 'it.'"

"No way," the other boy told him, his tone argumentative.

"Why not?"

"Because you're 'it.'"

"Eh? No I'm not!" Akihiko said defiantly. "You can't just go and say things like that, Shinji!"

"Oh, right." Shinjiro reached over and put his hand on Akihiko's shoulder. "There. _Now_ you're 'it.'"

* * *

"… Eight… nine… TEN!"

Akihiko looked up and straightened his posture against the entryway into the playroom. Somewhere in this building, Shinjiro and Miki were hiding.

The boy looked left and right, making sure no adult was nearby, inhaled deeply, and bellowed, "READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!"

* * *

"Are we gonna hide here in the kitchen, Shinji?"

Miki sat at the kitchen table while Shinjiro stood in front of the open refrigerator.

"Not hiding," he replied flatly. "Your brother just won't think to look here."

The girl looked towards the door, then back at Shinjiro, leaning forward so that she could eye the contents of the large appliance. "I want some azuki ice cream."

"No."

"But I'm HUN-GRYYY!"

"Too bad. You're getting an apple instead." Shinjiro stood and lightly kicked the refrigerator door closed, holding two of the aforementioned fruits, one in each hand. "They're better for you than ice cream any day."

"You're no fun, Shinji," Miki pouted, although she took the apple from him and took a bite. After chewing for a minute, she spit out the peel on the table.

She thought the older boy didn't notice anything until he climbed into the chair next to hers at the table.

"If you don't like the peels, I can cut them off for you. Otherwise, don't do that, it's gross." He sank his teeth into his own apple and gave her a disapproving look.

Miki puffed her cheeks at him defiantly, but his expression didn't change. They continued to eat in silence until footsteps were heard just on the other side of the door. It suddenly swung open, and a breathless Akihiko staggered inside, glaring daggers at Shinjiro.

"THIS is where you've been hiding the WHOLE TIME?" he shouted furiously at him. "I've been all over the place wondering where you were!"

Shinjiro nonchalantly closed one eye as he took another bite from his apple, deliberately taking his time to chew. It only caused Akihiko to continue glaring at him, and, just as the silverette was going to say something, he decided to speak first.

"Wasn't hiding," he started. "Tell your sister to speak up more, Aki; right after you started counting real loud like a brainless twit she went and told me she didn't have breakfast this morning."

"Eh?" That grinded Akihiko's tirade to a fantastic halt. "Miki, is that true?"

The girl simply looked at him with her large grey eyes, biting into her apple to avoid speaking, much to his chagrin. Shinjiro climbed off the chair, stretching his arms over his head as though he were tired. "Well, whatever. You want an apple, Aki?"

"No."

"Look, you're not gonna make her talk," Shinjiro said grudgingly as he walked towards the refrigerator, "so you might as well shut your trap and take a chair."

* * *

"NO WAY! You didn't even call 'time out!'"

Shinjiro lifted one hand in front of Akihiko's face. "Don't have to."

"That's against the rules! You gotta call 'time out!'" Aki shot back.

"Says, who?" Shinjiro asked coolly.

"… Uh… um, well…" Akihiko was suddenly shifty-eyed, looking at Shinjiro, then Miki, who was standing behind him, then back to Shinjiro again.

Miki's head tilted sideways a bit. "Who made the rules for hide-and-seek, onii-chan?"

"Eh? That is…" Akihiko started scratching his head. "I… dunno."

Shinjiro huffed. "I'm tired of this. You an' Miki can do what you want. I'm outta here."

"Shinji doesn't wanna play with Miki anymore?" Miki gazed at the brunette with her large gray eyes.

Shinjiro paused, his demeanor suddenly becoming awkward for a change. "Eh? Th-that's not it," he said hastily, pulling his hood over his head. "I… just don't wanna play hide-and-seek anymore…"

Akihiko saw his chance. "Come on, Shinji. Miki would really like it if you kept playing."

Shinjiro looked like he wanted to disappear. He mumbled something under his breath, tugging his hood further over his head.

"What was that, Shinji?" Akihiko called. "I couldn't hear you!"

"I said I'll play," the brunette murmured, his voice still barely audible.

"Shinji…"

"I SAID I'LL PLAY, GEEZ!" Shinjiro finally yelled, sending Miki scurrying behind Akihiko. The brunette glared at him for a few minutes before crossing his arms and turning away.

"… Miki doesn't want to play hide-and-seek anymore…"

The comment caught both boys by surprise. Akihiko turned to his sister. "Eh? Why not?"

Miki's large gray eyes remained on Shinjiro. "Shinji's too scary…"

The boys exchanged looks again. Shinjiro started to look regretful. He started tugging at his hood again, a trace of pink on his cheeks. "… Um… sorry… Miki." He shifted uncomfortably for a moment. "I'm… gonna go now."

He started to turn away and walk down the hall, but he was stopped when Miki called, "Wait! Shinji!"

The brunette stopped, turning back to the siblings. Miki stood in front of her brother now, though she still held his hand. "… Thank you for the apple, Shinji."

She managed a small smile despite being slightly spooked. As Aki watched, Shinji's spirits seemed to lift a bit, and he didn't look quite as awkward.

"Don't mention it," he answered back, trying to sound like usual. "Next time you want an apple, I'll cut the peel off for you, since you don't like them."

"Uh-huh." Miki nodded again, and Shinjiro, without waiting for anything Akihiko was going to say, left them alone in the hall.


	12. Cooking with Shinji

**A/N: I do believe I'm getting back into the swing of writing again... sort of. The first thing you'll notice is the change in season. Yep, I'm slowly moving forward. **

**Quick review answers!**

**Deidara'sgirl19: I thought going to the kitchen in the middle of a game of hide and seek would seem like a very 'Shinjiro' kind of thing to do, so I went with it. :D**

**namine23: A hot-headed crybaby and a level-headed tough kid do seem kind of odd as friends, don't they? I'm glad you're enjoying the story!**

**Rewritten Ennui: My ultimate goal is to coat the world with sugar. But since that isn't possible, I'll just continue writing. Thanks soo much for always catching my typos!**

**WiltedxBlackxRose: Suggestions are always welcome! There are always times when I absolutely have nothing to write, which was my reason for taking requests. Thanks for reviewing, too. :  
**

**This particular chapter was suggested by SourL. Shinji tries a hand at culinary creations! ... Sort of. Most of this chapter is Shinji/Miki interaction, anyway. :/  
**

**I don't own Persona 3/FES/Portable and related stuff.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 12**

"**Cooking" with Shinji**

…

_**-Summer 1998-**_

…

Orphanage 2nd Floor, Boys' Room - Evening

"Alright, boys, I'm turning these lights out now!" Suoh announced as she stood by the switch near the door. "It's time for bed, and you've got school tomorrow!"

The boys in the room, save for Akihiko and Shinjiro, all started to groan and complain. Masaru raised his hand as though he were actually in class and called out, "Can't I stay up longer? It's the last day before summer break!"

Suoh pretended to think about it for a moment before telling the third-grader, "No. There's a reason why we have rules. 'Lights out' is the same time every night, no exceptions."

Masaru screwed his face up, but he didn't dare say whatever he had in mind. Satisfied, the young woman huffed lightly, "Is that all? Then goodnight."

"Goodnight, Suoh-san," all the boys except Masaru, Akihiko, and Shinjiro groaned in unison. Once the lights were switched off and the door closed, however, all bets were off.

"'There's a reason why we have rules,' MY 'YOU-KNOW-WHAT,'" Masaru complained. "S'not fair, I'm the oldest in here, I can stay up longer than you babies."

"I can stay up, too!" his brother Kenta shouted. "I can stay up, too, aniki!"

"Me, too!" a boy named Ikuto, who had recently arrived a couple weeks ago, chimed in. "I can stay up all night long!"

"Yeah! Yeah!" a couple of the other boys said.

Masaru smirked. "Fine then. We'll have a bet to see who stays up the longest." He looked over to Akihiko, who was silently perched on his bed across the room, and then Shinjiro, who was starting to bury himself in his blanket. "Aki-freako, Ara-gagface, you're in it, too."

"No," Aki said without a moment's hesitation.

"Bug off, stupid," Shinjiro grumbled from his pillow, "or you'll pay for it in the morning."

The eight-year old's face twisted with anger for a moment, but he recovered quickly. "I see; you're scared of Suoh and the old bat!"

"No."

"Go to sleep, stupid."

"Fine then! Dummies! Freaks! Forget you! I was gonna let you be my underlings, too!"

"Whatever." Akihiko settled on his mattress, pulling his blanket up to his chest as he rested his head on the pillow.

"You're noisy, stupid." Shinjiro fell silent.

Masaru bristled. "All right then, since Aki-freako and Shrimp-jiro are such PANSIES," he said a bit loudly, "It'll be just the rest of us, okay?"

Not wanting to alert the two adults, the rest of the boys simply pumped their fists.

…

Barely an hour had passed when the door to the boys' room opened again. Suoh stepped inside a moment later, walking about the room a final time to make sure no one was still awake. When she reached a certain bed at the end of the room by the window, her gaze lingered its brown, shaggy-haired owner for a few moments before turning about face and heading the opposite direction.

Once the door clicked shut and the footsteps faded away, Shinjiro slowly sat up. Suoh had been pacing the hall outside their door for some time because Masaru and those other stupid kids- except Akihiko, he had already settled in for the night- decided to keep themselves awake by talking about some crappy superhero team show. Birdo Wingman X or something, it was called, the boy didn't care. All he knew was that creaking floors and obnoxious voices had kept him from getting some much-needed rest.

Shinji's line of sight drifted from the empty bed across from him to the boys' room door. So near, yet so far; if he stepped on all the wrong spots on the floor, he would risk waking the other kids. If it were Aki, he wouldn't mind. He was the only one he even dared consider a friend, even though he'd never say so aloud.

It was Masaru he was worried about.

Leisurely, Shinjiro climbed off his bed and crept around his bed towards the door. He was particularly careful with his footsteps; he had an idea of which wooden boards would creak the most, so all he had to do was avoid them.

He was only a few feet from the front door when, all of a sudden, there was a light knocking on the door.

"…!" Shinjiro stopped in his tracks. Who on earth would be knocking on the door this time of night?

"Shinji. Shinji, onii-chan, open the door."

"M-miki?" Shinjiro all but scrambled to close the distance between him and the door. Opening it slightly so he could see the silver-haired girl's large eyes staring back at him, he felt like burying his face in his hands. "Miki, what are you doing? Go back to bed before you get in trouble."

"But… Miki's hungry," the girl protested. "Miki wants azuki ice cream."

Shinjiro's brow furrowed. "Dinner was hours ago. Besides, it's too late to eat ice cream."

"Miki didn't have dinner."

"What do you mean, you didn't have dinner?"

Miki's cheeks puffed, as though whatever she was remembering made her upset. "It fell!"

"What fell?"

"Miki's curry rice fell! It was curry rice Reiko made for Miki, since all the other stuff was gone!"

Shinjiro considered the girl for a moment. "… That's right; you didn't have oden like me an' Aki…"

Miki pouted. "Shinji, I want azuki…"

Shinjiro shushed her with a finger over his lips and a shake of his head. This girl was not going to annoy him tonight about ice cream. Or takoyaki. Or dango. Or something else probably unhealthy.

He looked back for a moment to make sure that no one had woken up, and then muttered, "I'll see what I can do. You'll have to come with me, though." He gave Miki a stern expression. "Try not to make any noise, the last thing I want is Suoh or Reiko findin' out we're up in the first place."

When the girl nodded, the older boy checked behind him one last time before stepping outside the room and closing the door quietly behind him.

…

Orphanage 1st Floor, Kitchen - Late Night

"Shinji, can I have azuki ice cream?"

"No."

"But I want azuki ice cream!"

Shinjiro stopped right in front of the refrigerator door, causing Miki to bump into him from behind. "Miki," he said slowly, "we don't even _have_ azuki ice cream. Even if we did, you're not getting any. It's too late, and it won't be good for you."

Miki puffed her cheeks out defiantly. "So gimme some pocky! I want pocky!"

"No."

"Toppo?"

"No."

"Dango?"

"No."

"Taiyaki!"

"NO."

Miki's small hands balled into fists. She clearly didn't like the fact that Shinjiro wasn't going to let her have her way. She fumed silently as Shinjiro walked over to the light switch and flipped it on. It took a moment for the children's eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness, but Shinjiro set to work right away, dragging a chair towards one of the cabinets.

Miki's anger gave way to curiosity as she wondered what the brunette was up to, seeing him climb on the chair and reach to open the cabinet door with one knee on the counter. After a few careful moments, he had managed to get a salt shaker.

The moment he had climbed back down to the floor again, Miki asked him, "Are you going to make something, Shinji?"

The shaggy-haired youth scrutinized what he gathered so far, and replied mechanically, "Something like that."

As he continued rummaging about where he could reach, Miki pulled out another chair from the table and climbed into it, leaning forward so her head rested in her arms on the surface. Her large eyes followed the brunette as he continued whatever he was doing.

After a few moments, Shinjiro had gathered a small assortment of items: the salt shaker he had retrieved from the cabinet, along with an open jar of pickled plums and a covered, medium-sized bowl. He stood before them, his nose slightly wrinkled. "… This won't work without hot rice…"

"Hot rice?" Miki's head cocked sideways. "What does Shinji need hot rice for?"

"... Onigiri." Shinjiro pointed to the covered bowl. "This rice is cold; it won't be good for making onigiri."

"Can't you make it hot?" Miki asked.

The older boy frowned. "… I'll get in trouble if I use the stove… I can't reach any pots or pans, either. This won't work…"

The girl sat up, her expression determined. "Shinji can make onigiri!" she said. "Miki don't care if the rice is cold!"

Shinjiro smirked. "You're just like your brother," he remarked. "Okay, if you still want onigiri, I'll just have to work with that I've got."

"Miki's gonna help, too!" Miki climbed down from her chair and ran over to the boy as he headed for the sink and climbed on the chair he left there to wet his hands.

"No. I'll do it myself," Shinjiro said, climbing back down from the chair carefully so that he didn't lose his grip. "I wanna know I can make it without help."

Miki looked concerned, but she kept silent as the older boy headed back to the table. As she watched, he sprinkled a bit of salt on his hands and rubbed them together before uncovering the bowl.

"Why'd you do that?" she asked curiously. "With the salt?"

"Keeps it from sticking," Shinjiro mumbled, picking up a handful of rice. "… But it's a little cold…"

Carefully, he molded the in his hands for a moment until he flattened it in one hand. With his free one, he carefully picked a pickled plum from the jar and pressed it in the middle, and then started to mold the rice about some more. Bits of rice fell onto the table as he did so; after a minute, he glared at the crudely formed onigiri in his hands and sighed. Many grains were mashed together, and it looked as though it were going to fall apart.

Miki looked slightly disappointed. "That's not how Reiko made it…"

"I know," Shinjiro snapped, placing the rice ball on the container lid.

"Can I have it?"

"What? No! It's not good!"

"But I'm hungryyyyy," Miki whined.

"Fine, take it! You won't like it, though." Shinjiro shoved the rice ball towards Miki, who gladly picked it up in her small hands and took a bite.

He watched carefully for some sort of reaction from the girl, but she didn't say a word as she bit it again. After a few minutes of what could only be described as awkward silence, Miki finally finished the rice ball, looked him in the eye and said cheerfully, "This is bad onigiri Shinji!"

The brunette sighed. "I knew it."

Miki was still smiling at him. "I want another one!"

"Eh? No!" Shinjiro's expression was aghast. "It's not good for you to eat bad food."

"I'm gonna scream," Miki warned. "Make another onigiri!"

The older boy muttered something under his breath she didn't hear, burying half his face in his hand. Brown eyes boring holes into the girl, he said, "Alright, then, but after this, we're both going back to bed."

…

"Hmm… that's strange… I know I had a full jar of umeboshi last time I checked."

Akihiko immediately looked up from the omelet he was eating. "Umeboshi? Those little things you put in the onigiri for lunch?"

Reiko crossed her arms as she closed the cabinet doors. "Yeah. There was rice all over the table, too. You wouldn't happen to know who'd be messing around in here in the middle of the night, eh, Akihiko-kun?"

The silver-haired youth shook his head. "No." He turned to the boy sitting in the chair next to him with his head on the table. "Shinji, Reiko-san says someone was messing around in the kitchen last night."

"...Shu' up…stu…pid," Shinjiro groaned, "an'…. slee…" He fell silent, burying his head further in the crook of his arm.

Akihiko looked on for a moment longer, and then looked back at Reiko with a confused expression. To his surprise, she was smirking.

"Never mind. My question's already been answered."


	13. Pocket Watches, Grudges, and Fisticuffs

**A/N: When was the last time I updated this again? I forget. Internet issues are a nightmare, anyways. **

**I made use of that time and finished another chapter, though. To be honest, I don't think this one's very good. Someday, I'll probably look back on this and either say it sucks or see if I can improve it somewhat... maybe.**

**Until then, here it is. Please let me know if there are any typos, though.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 13**

**Pocket Watches, Grudges, and Good Old Fisticuffs**

…

_Orphanage, 2__nd__ Floor Boys Room - Morning_

"Miki, don't go over there, that's where Shinji sleeps!"

Akihiko's attempts to reach the girl once again fell in vain as she climbed over the bed by the window, her silver pigtails flapping about.

"But there's a _noise_ here, onii-chan! Miki can hear it!"

"Then how come I can't?"

"Because you can't." Miki climbed off the bed and proceed to crawl underneath.

Akihiko sprang off his own bed immediately. "No, Miki, come back! Don't you want to learn about animals?" He held up a large card in front of him. "See, this one's a lion; it goes 'ROAR!' and stuff."

"Boring!" Miki sang from underneath the bed. "Hey, onii-chan, there's a box here!"

"Don't touch it, Miki, it's not yours," Akihiko warned as he all but scrambled to where the girl's feet poked out from under the bed.

"But Miki wants to look! Onii-chan's gonna look, too!"

"NO, I'm not. Shinji's gonna be mad if he finds us here, you know."

"Nuh-uh! Shinji's in the kitchen with Reiko, helpin' with lunch."

To Akihiko's horror, Miki emerged from the bed a moment later holding Shinjiro's old shoebox. It was pretty dusty and the lid was taped to the box on one side. She beamed at him for a moment, but her smile disappeared suddenly.

Akihiko rushed over to her, worried. "What's the matter, Miki?"

"There's something making noise in here." The younger girl sat the box on the floor and, much to her brother's dismay, flipped it open.

"Miki, close it and put it back!" Akihiko panicked. "You're not supposed to look in other people's things!"

"Miki only wanna know what's makin' the…" Miki trailed off, her eyes focused on a round, metallic object in the box. It was a worn silver thing, and completely unremarkable-looking. She picked it up with one hand and turned it over, only to find strange characters engraved it its back. In the complete silence that settled in the room, a faint ticking sound was heard coming from the object.

"Onii-chan, what is this? What's it say?" Miki showed the object to Akihiko.

Forgetting his earlier panic, he took it from her, nearly fumbling with it as it was frigid to the touch. Curiosity occupied his mind as he examined it with inquisitive eyes and apprehensive hands.

"I haven't seen these before," Akihiko had to admit as he looked at the engraved characters. "I think these are the _kanji _Saito-sensei was talking about in school once."

Turning it over another time, his finger brushed against something, making the metal object flip open and reveal the miniature face of a clock.

… At least, it _looked_ like the face of a clock. There was the thin second hand that moved with each and every _"tick",_ the thicker minute hand that moved very little, and the short hour hand that never seemed to move at all. Instead of numbers, however, there were letters, starting with an "XII" in place of a "12", an "I" instead of a "1", and so on around in a circle until it reached "XI."

Miki seemed to notice this as well, because her brow furrowed the longer she stared. "Onii-chan, this isn't a clock, is it?"

Akihiko turned it around in his hand, trying to make sense of it. "It's too small to be a real clock; it's not like the one hanging downstairs. Maybe…"

Without warning, the door suddenly opened, causing the Sanada brother and sister to freeze. Two pairs of gray eyes immediately focused on the person standing in the threshold… who was none other than Shinjiro.

Everything was still. The brunette at first blankly stared at them. Brown eyes widened in recognition of the "small clock" in Akihiko's hands, then focused squarely on the silver-haired boy as the lone girl shrank back in worry. Shinjiro let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding in, shut his eyes tight and turned away from them, banging a clenched fist on the door. "Akihiko…"

Akihiko and Miki remained frozen where they sat, both wary. For one thing, neither of them had seen the brunette even act this way before. Akihiko was especially worried; this was the first time his friend _didn't_ use his nickname. The silverette stood and took a couple of steps toward him. "Shinji…"

Shinjiro let out a bitter laugh. "… You're kiddin' me, right?"

Akihiko paused again. "Shinji…?"

"Don't 'Shinji' me, dumbass!" The brunette's glare was enough to make him nearly fall onto his rear, it was so intense. "What the hell do you think you're doin' with that pocket watch?"

"Pocket watch?" Akihiko looked generally confused for a moment before deciding now was the best moment to put it back where it belonged. Shinjiro watched him the entire time, his expression now completely unreadable. The silverette looked over at Miki, who had been completely silent and looking back and forth between the two boys the entire time.

… Miki didn't deserve to be yelled at. She got enough of that from a middle school student who simply didn't want to be around small children.

"I found it," Akihiko lied. "It was only by chance, though; I was a little curious…"

"Shove whatever else you're gonna say up your ass, I don't wanna hear it. I never messed with what little you've got; you have no right to go through mine."

"Shinji…"

"_DON'T CALL ME THAT NO MORE!"_ Shinjiro bellowed. He turned his back to the two siblings, willing his trembling fists to stay still.

After a few tense moments; Miki stood up and started to walk over to Shinjiro, but Akihiko took hold of her hand, shaking his head.

The brunette finally seemed to have settled himself, but he didn't turn back to face the Sanada siblings. Instead he addressed the elder brother directly, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Stay outta my way."

…

In the days that followed, Shinjiro was barely seen anywhere inside the orphanage. When Akihiko would wake up in the morning, the bed by the window in the boys' room was always empty, a sign that he was already up and about.

When they were in the vicinity of each other, whether Miki happened to be around or not, the shaggy-haired youth completely ignored him, greeted Miki stiffly, and continued to wherever he happened to be going.

Covering for Miki had backfired in the worst way possible. And it was making him irritated.

As the brother and sister sat in the grass in the backyard one afternoon Akihiko noticed that Miki, too, wasn't very happy about it either.

"Onii-chan, why did you lie to Shinji?"

Akihiko knew where this was heading; she'd asked the question twice before, and when he told her the answer, he had to stop her from speaking with the brunette. While part of him thought it was a bit ridiculous to pretend the silverette didn't exist over some pocket watch, he was all for giving his friend some space. Miki had wanted to tell him the truth of the matter, but Akihiko wasn't having any of that.

"Do you really want Shinji to be mad at you, too?" Akihiko replied. "S'better this way."

"No it's not!" Miki stood up and glared at him. "You're… you're a liar, onii-chan! Why did you lie to Shinji?"

"I'm not going through this again, Miki…" The silverette trailed off, noticing that Miki was going back inside. "Oi! Where are you off to?"

The small girl ignored his question; she turned about face to look into his eyes, stick out her tongue, and slam the door shut.

It left Akihiko with a bad taste in his mouth.

…

_Naganaki Shrine - Next Afternoon_

"Hey, Aki-freako, where's your freak baby sister?" Masaru shouted from the top of the slide.

Akihiko had chosen to sit on the nearby bench. Ever since their small argument yesterday, Miki refused to speak to him. Coupled with the fact that Shinjiro was still ignoring him completely, it left him not in the mood to deal with Masaru's antics. Then again, maybe the third-grader didn't have anything better to do than to bully first-graders.

"Hey, did you hear me, Aki-freako?" Masaru shouted louder. "I said, 'Where's your freak baby sister?'"

Masaru's younger brother Kenta poked his head out from under the slide. "Aniki, I don't think he hears you!"

"That so? Looks like I'll have to make him, then!" Pushing up the sleeves of his shirt, Masaru climbed down from where he was perched on the slide and made a beeline towards Akihiko, with Kenta right at his heels, giggling as though he were looking forward to a silly cartoon show.

It would be easy to pretend they didn't exist, Akihiko knew, so he flashed them a cold look, hoping they would leave him alone. The brothers wouldn't be easily driven off, however…

"Finally, you're payin' me some mind," the elder of the two brothers sneered. "I was afraid I was gonna hafta get your attention another way."

"Whatever." Akihiko hopped off the bench. To his chagrin, Masaru and Kenta followed.

"Where's your freak sister, Aki-freako? I see she ain't followin' behind you like some lost little puppy no more."

"None of your business."

"None of our business, he says," Kenta piped up. "He's messin' with us, aniki!"

"Shut up, Kenta, I ain't stupid!" Masaru snapped. Turning his attention back to the silver-haired youth's retreating figure, he added, "Not like old Aki-freako and his gray hair!"

Akihiko stopped mid-step. Masaru had always made fun of the color of his and Miki's hair color, but this new insult caught him off-guard.

"You think he's old?" Kenta didn't seem to get it. The younger boy didn't always catch on to some things right away.

"Only old people have hair that color." Masaru was sneering at Akihiko the whole while he spoke. "How old are you s'posed to be, Aki-freako? Is it six, seven, eight, or a hundred?"

"Shut up," Akihiko growled.

Kenta seemed to comprehend his brother's joke now. "Oh, I get it! If Freako's an old man…"

Masaru's eyes narrowed to slits as his smile widened. "Since Aki-freako's an old man, his sister's an old hag. An _old hag_ just like Reiko-_SAN."_ He pronounced the honorific as though it were one of those bad words the adults kept telling them never to say.

Akihiko had completely ignored that obvious disrespect directed at their caretakers; he found his rage building at the fact that Masaru insulted his sister. If she were here at the moment, she'd have no doubt started to wail and cry. But she wasn't, and as far as Akihiko was concerned, that was fine.

Masaru definitely saw the fury in his eyes, and had the audacity to laugh. "Ooh, look, Kenta, he's really mad, now."

Kenta didn't look too thrilled, however, and took a step back, staying silent.

"What, are you gonna pick a fight with me, you skinny little shrimp?" Masaru continued heckling, ignoring his younger brother's wariness. "You know you can't-"

Masaru never got the chance to finish the sentence, as Akihiko rushed at him that next second and tackled him.

…

_Orphanage, 2__nd__ Floor Boys' Room - Late Afternoon_

Miki slammed the door shut behind her as she entered, fighting back the urge to cry as a few tears streamed down her cheeks. As she tried to wipe them away, laughter erupted from the girls' room next door.

"Seriously, she's always around boys so much, she might as well be one of them." A voice could be heard through the wall.

"She certainly smells like them," piped up a second.

"That's because she's in their room all the time!" exclaimed a third.

"What kind of girl plays in dirt with dump trucks, anyway? That's something only boys do!" the first voice said loudly.

"She should put some of that dirt in her hair, maybe it'll get darker."

"That'll only make her hair dirty!"

"Why should that matter? She already acts like a boy; she may as well stay dirty like one and her hair won't be that awful color anymore. Come on, you don't even _see_ other kids with _that_ hair color."

The last comment was met with even more laughter. Fresh tears welled up in Miki's eyes, and as she tried to wipe them away again, a familiar voice- one in the room with her- made her pause at it addressed her.

"I know you're there. Quit listening to those idiot girls and clean up your face so your eyes don't get red and puffy."

"Shinji?" the girl dared to speak, her voice shaky.

"No one else is here," the brunette responded, rising from the other side of his bed by the window. Miki hadn't known he was sitting there, much less actually there. His grey-brown eyes were forlorn as he looked on, and he motioned for her to come forward after a moment. "It's rude to stand over people. Come over here."

She did as she was told, wiping her eyes with one hand as she walked over to him and followed suit when he sat back down. She immediately noticed the open shoebox sitting between them, the fact that Shinjiro's hands were in the pocket of his burgundy hoodie, and the faint ticking sound coming from that same pocket. She looked up to him expectantly, as laughter from the girls' room resounded again through the wall.

If Shinjiro noticed the girl's stare, he didn't show it… at first. After a few moments, he sighed, closing his eyes. "What is it?"

"What's tick, tick, ticking in your pocket?"

"… Pocket watch." The brunette's voice was so low, she barely heard him.

"Pocky-what?"

Shinjiro sighed again, and removed his hand from his pocket, showing her the round, metallic object she and Akihiko had picked up before.

"Oh, it's that clock thing!" Miki exclaimed.

"S'called a pocket watch," Shinjiro said begrudgingly, his voice a little louder. "It's like a clock, only smaller."

Miki's eyes seemed to light up. "You mean you can look at it and say it's time to eat like Suoh and Reiko?"

"That's because they look at the clock and read what time it is." Shinjiro stuffed the watch back into his pocket hastily.

What followed was an awkward silence; only the ticking and the now muffled voices from the girls' room could be heard.

"Hey, Shinji, can you look at the watch and tell what time it is?" Miki finally asked.

A trace of pink appeared on the brunette's cheeks that he couldn't easily hide. "We… we didn't learn it in school yet," he said, a little too loudly. "Anyway, why aren't you with your brother?"

Miki's cheeks puffed. "Onii-chan's a dummy-liar-head."

The comment took Shinjiro by surprise. "What?"

…

_Orphange, 1__st__ Floor, Den - Evening_

No one was really paying attention to the sentai show playing on the television that evening, much to Shinjiro's annoyance. The murmuring amongst the children about Akihiko and Masaru getting in trouble for fighting at the shrine's playground proved too strong to ignore.

"… and then aniki had him pinned, but that's when Suoh came from the shrine," Kenta was telling a couple of other boys who would listen. Some of the girls nearby snorted and started yapping amongst themselves about how fighting was so barbaric and something only boys did. Two of the group hand wrestled over a doll earlier that afternoon.

The brunette sighed and moved away from the two groups of children, with Miki right behind him, and found a certain kid seated apart from the rest.

Akihiko was in a corner facing the wall, legs crossed and head held high, as though he'd decided challenge himself by punishing himself with a time-out. Even with his back to them, the shaggy-haired youth could tell the other boy had his arms crossed.

As Miki ran over to her brother to inquire about him (she had been worried after hearing the other kids talk about him), Shinjiro thought back to just a couple of hours earlier when he and Miki were sitting in the boys' room. Miki had told him everything; how she was the one who actually found his pocket watch while going through his stuff, and her brother had tried to get her to stop, even though he ended up looking at the watch with her. She became teary-eyed again as she apologized and asked him not to be mad at Akihiko anymore.

Shinjiro's cheeks burned as he remembered how easily he complied with the girl's wishes; it was starting to make his stomach turn whenever he saw tears in her eyes, and he didn't like the feeling that accompanied it, either.

Right now that very same emotion was bubbling to the surface as he saw Akihiko perk up a little in the presence of his sister and started describing to her what happened at the shrine.

He decided he didn't like that feeling. In fact, it was the probably the worst thing anyone could feel as far as he was concerned.

As he sat with the Sanada siblings and addressed Akihiko by his nickname for the first time in several days, Shinji decided that, for now, it was time to make things right. At the very least, Aki could _look_ at his pocket watch.

…Asking where he got it from was out of the question.


	14. Forget

**A/N: I'm still alive... I just really didn't have any time to write anything, and briefly lost interest in writing anything Persona-related. I've recently come around, though, so I managed to get this chapter done. Some of the focus shifts a little more to Shinjiro here. Not much else to say except for a very belated thanks for past reviews.**

**Anyways, not much editing was done to this chapter, and I apologize. This is what I get for posting at almost 1 am. .; I'll go back over it and edit when I get a chance. Please enjoy reading the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Persona 3 belongs to Atlus.**

* * *

**Chapter 14**

**Forget**

* * *

_Flashback: Summer 1995_

She was wearing a brand-new yukata just for the occasion.

He was carrying a gold-fish in a baggie with one hand while the other tugged at her hand, urging her to come with him to the booth selling all the masks.

About three feet away from the booth, her fingers slipped through his. By the time he turned about face to look, she was already laying face-down on the paved ground.

She wasn't moving.

This had happened before; he knew exactly what to do here.

He knelt down next to her, placing his goldfish bag on the ground next to him. His small hands gently shook her shoulder. "Ma, wake up."

She didn't move. Sometimes it took more than one try.

"Ma, wake up."

Nothing. She still lay there, prone, unmoving.

Panic started to set in. He continued trying to wake her, his voice rising with each attempt.

At some point, people had gathered around, and sirens drowned out his own voice.

When he looked up, an EMT had already reached his side.

"Everything's going to be alright," he said, sounding suspiciously like a character from a children's show. "We're going to do everything we can to save your mom."

He was led by the worker into the back of the ambulance, following the stretcher. They seemed completely focused on their task, placing an oxygen mask on her face and talking quickly amongst themselves.

He was separated from her when they got to the hospital. The EMT said that the doctors were going to make her better and that he shouldn't worry.

He held onto those words the whole time, even as the long beep from her room echoed in the hall.

* * *

_Present Time: Summer 1998_

_Orphanage 2__nd__ Floor, Boys Room - Late Night_

Shinjiro sat bolt upright in bed, hair matted with sweat and gasping for air. Bringing his knees up to his chest, he closed his eyes tight, willing himself to calm down.

"Shinji?"

His eyes snapped open, darting around to find Akihiko sitting up and gazing worriedly at him from across the dark room.

"S'nothin'," he replied, voice undeniably shaky. "Go back to bed."

The silver-haired boy only looked on for another moment before getting the message. Silently, he settled back into his bed and lay down. He turned away, so Shinjiro wasn't able to tell whether or not he had actually gone back to sleep.

The fact that Akihiko was concerned about him in the first place made Shinjiro feel that he wasn't quite so alone.

* * *

_Orphanage 1__st__ Floor, Kitchen - Morning_

"Shinji, how come you're not eating?"

Reiko turned her head slightly from the dish she had been focused on cleaning. Miki, Shinjiro, and Akihiko had been the last three kids in the orphanage to come for breakfast lately. The three of them had been spending more time together recently, although the brother and sister did most of the talking while the brunet remained despondent and quiet.

What the middle-aged caretaker was seeing right now, however, was unusual.

Aragaki Shinjiro, who always cleaned off his plate without complaining, no matter what food it was, hadn't touched his rolled eggs. Akihiko's expression as the gazed at the boy was one of concern, and Miki, oblivious to the somewhat tense atmosphere between them, kept asking the same question even when met with silence.

Reiko returned her focus to washing the remainder of the dishes when she heard Akihiko speak for the first time since they had arrived.

"You okay, Shinji?"

"Yeah." Shinjiro's voice was so soft Reiko almost didn't hear it.

"But you…" Akihiko sounded like he wanted to say more, but he fell silent, apparently at a loss. After a minute, he seemed to get his courage back. "Shinji, if something's the matter…"

"I told you, I'm fine, stupid." Shinjiro's voice was louder this time. "You're gettin' annoying."

When Reiko turned to look again, Shinjiro had already gotten off his chair and was heading out the kitchen. Akihiko and Miki only looked on in silence.

Reiko sighed. This was going on for about two days now; Shinjiro's demeanor was icier than usual, and on top of that he was barely eating anything. Still, she couldn't blame him.

After all, it was that time of year again.

* * *

_Orphanage, Backyard - Daytime_

Apparently, when Shinji wanted to be left alone, he meant it.

Ever since he left the kitchen after breakfast that morning, Akihiko hadn't seen any sign of him. After fifteen minutes of searching, he'd given up (and he didn't want to make Miki tired, as she was following him around, as always) and decided to watch television with the other kids until he'd gotten bored and went outside.

It wasn't until he was sitting on the edge of the sandbox with his sister that a thought had suddenly occurred to him. He suddenly stood up, causing Miki to look at him in wonder.

"Onii-chan?"

"Miki," he addressed the girl. "Let's go back inside. I think I know where Shinji is."

* * *

_Orphanage 2__nd__ Floor, Boys' Room - Daytime_

It turned out to be a bust.

Akihiko fully expected to see messy brown hair sticking from underneath a blanket on the bed closest to the window, but all he found were pillows and a balled-up school uniform.

"How come Shinji's not here?" Miki asked.

"I dunno," the older boy answered her. "I thought he would be here… but I guess not."

"Let's go… Miki's bored…" Miki frowned. "I wanna eat some azuki ice cream."

"You can't have ice cream, Miki," Aki said, "the doctor said you're…" He trailed off for a moment, thinking of the words. "L-lack-tose in-to-ler… Ugh, you can't drink milk or eat cheese."

"But Miki can have ice cream!"

"Well, ice cream is made from milk, so you can't have it. Now, come on."

As the Sanada siblings left the room, Miki snapped, "I can, too! Just watch!"

* * *

_Orphanage 1__st__ Floor, Kitchen - Daytime_

Miki was glaring at her onigiri as if she were willing it to burst into flames.

"I told you so," Akihiko told her, chewing on his own food. "I'm your big brother; I'm not wrong all the time."

Miki fumed silently, but took a bite of her food.

Reiko watched the two of them with an amused look on her face.

Aki quickly noticed and swallowed before addressing the caretaker. "Reiko-san?"

"Ah, don't mind me, I'm just thinking about the old days, is all."

Miki blinked. "Old days?"

"Well, yeah." Reiko pulled out a chair next to Miki and sat down. "Seeing you two reminds me of when I was a kid, growing up with my little brother."

Miki completely forgot about her mini-tantrum as her eyes widened with genuine shock. "No way!"

"Reiko-san wasn't always a grownup?" Akihiko questioned, putting down his rice ball.

The old woman laughed heartily, as though the children's reactions were nothing new to her (except, well, they didn't know that, either).

"No, I wasn't always this old. It just doesn't seem that way to you, because you two are little." Reiko chuckled. "Anyway, the house I grew up in is gone now, but I remember always sitting in the kitchen eating the snacks my mother made. My brother and I were always talking back and forth to each other, just like the two of you are."

"What happened to your brother, Reiko-san?" Akihiko asked, giving the woman's story his full attention.

Reiko looked somber. "Well, he's gone. He died about ten years ago in an accident. In fact, I know that Suoh misses him, too."

This earned her a confused look from the children, and she quickly added, "My brother was Suoh's father. He always liked to help others, especially children; it had been his dream to open up this orphanage with me. We made it come true, alright, but, then the accident happened…" She trailed off, wiping a tear from her eye.

"I'm sorry," Akihiko said, his eyes looking misty.

"M-me, too," said Miki with a sniffle. "For getting mad about getting onigiri 'stead of ice cream…"

"That's not the point, Miki…" Akihiko sighed and shook his head, wondering to himself what was going through his sister's mind sometimes… was she even listening?

Apparently, she was, because she then asked the older woman, "Are you sad about your brother?"

"I always will be. That's one thing that will never change." Reiko ruffled Miki's hair. "But, I know that my brother never liked to see me cry my eyes out, so after a while I figured I would continue to live and work hard for the both of us. That way, I can see him and say, 'Hey, little bro. I've got a lot of stories to tell you.'"

Reiko was smiling, but Akihiko could see that Miki looked like she was deep in thought. He must have had a similar expression on his face, because Reiko turned to him, still smiling.

"Maybe it's because I'm old that I can talk this way so easily," she mused. "You're still young, still children. You may not understand it now, but you will some day."

Akihiko's mind stirred with the memories of his own parents. He looked directly into Reiko's eyes, a sense of… something he couldn't quite describe just yet… making his heart pound.

"I've decided, then, Reiko-san!" He stood up and raised a fist into the air. "I'm gonna grow up and do a whole bunch of stuff and become strong! Then my Mom and Dad will be happy, right?"

"Miki, too!" His sister raised a fist as well.

Reiko laughed as she rose from her chair. "Haha, the two of you never fail to brighten my day. Well, I better finish this up for the other kids. They'll be clamoring before long."

As she returned to check on some rice she had been cooking, the room settled into a comfortable silence. Akihiko continued to think about Reiko's story for a moment, but it quickly gave rise to an emotion he had never experienced before, so he quickly pushed it aside, shuddering inwardly. His thoughts then returned to Shinjiro, who he was sure was determined to make sure he eluded him for as long as possible.

"Reiko-san, do you know where Shinji is? I haven't been able to find him."

To his surprise, the older woman's shoulder's drooped slightly as she let out a sigh. "That kid's always worrying everyone..."

Miki, who had been peeling the strip of nori from her onigiri, looked up when she heard the words. "Who? Shinji?"

Reiko nodded.

"Do you know where he is?" Akihiko repeated.

"Why do you want to find him?" The woman turned to face him, her expression serious. "I heard that little exchange this morning, and he made it clear he wanted to be alone."

"Shinji's my friend," Akihiko said resolutely. "If something's the matter with him, I wanna know what it is so I can help him."

"That's admirable of you, Akihiko-kun," Reiko said, turning away from him to drain the rice. "However, as Shinjiro's friend, there are times where you need to give him some space and let him be alone."

"Why?"

At first, the old woman didn't answer him. She shook some extra water off the rice, dumped it into a large bowl, and covered it with a lid. She then turned to Akihiko, her brown eyes looking right into his own silver hues.

"Tell me, Akihiko, do you plan on going to the festival at the shrine this year?"

* * *

_Orphanage, 3__rd__ Floor, Unoccupied Room - Daytime_

Shinjiro's eyes slowly opened to bright sunlight shining right in his face.

Sitting up and stifling a yawn, he briefly wondered where he was before he remembered he was sitting on an old sofa in a very familiar room.

Still, he figured he had to have been in here a long time for him to have fallen asleep. That just meant that he wasn't found by a certain pair of siblings with silver grey hair yet.

Shinjiro had to admire how clean the room was kept. With the exception of the desk and chair in a corner near the door, the coffee table sitting in front of him, and the sofa on which he sat, no other furniture graced the room.

Except for the faint ticking from the pocket watch the boy held onto and his own breathing, the room was silent, and it suited him just fine. He had come up here to get away from everyone to begin with. He figured the two women knew he was up there, but they never bothered to retrieve him. That, too, suited him just fine.

He held up the watch in front of him, watching as it hung from its chain in his hand. He remembered the day he received it, although that memory had admittedly become hazy now.

Lowering his arm and holding the object with both hands, he turned over and ran a thumb over the engraved characters for his name, at the same time envisioning a pale hand doing the same.

"…_of course, you can't read your own name written this way yet… but you'll learn someday…"_

Shinjiro paused, his eyebrows furrowed. The words were vivid enough in his memory, but not the voice…

What did "her" voice sound like again?

Willing himself to calm down, the brunette slid from the sofa to the floor, bringing his knees up to his chest. It had been a long time since he had thought of the memory, after all. There was no need to get worked up over it. Not at all.

"Take it slow," he muttered to himself, shutting his eyes tight. "Slow… that's all…"

It was light out, he remembered. The weather was warm. They were sitting together, looking at the pocket watch. "Her" hands were pale, they always had been. "She" spoke to him, he could think of the words, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember the voice.

He remembered asking a question, then looking up to see "her" face…

... But "her" face wasn't there.

Tears welled up in Shinjiro's eyes. "I… no…"

All he could think of now was a thin, pale woman with brown hair the same shade as his own, sitting on the back porch of a house on a sunny day… with no face.

The boy shook his head. He couldn't believe this. It was bad enough he couldn't remember "her" voice…

"Shinji!"

By the time Shinjiro turned to the door, it had already swung open. Akihiko stood in the doorway, breathing hard as though he had just run all the way up here.

The brunette stubbornly tried to wipe the tears away, but for some reason, they just wouldn't stop. His shoulders shook, and he choked back a sob. Part of him thought he was looking really pitiful right now, but another part of him didn't care anymore.

"You were up here all this time?" Aki asked worriedly, cautiously taking a step forward.

All Shinjiro could do was nod and keep an arm covered over his eyes, although tears still rolled down his face.

"Uh…" The other boy's voice sounded very awkward now. "I'm sorry if I'm botherin' you. I ran up here soon as Reiko-san said you were here, so… Ah, Miki's still downstairs…"

The brunette sniffed, and wiped his face with his sleeve. When he looked at his friend, his eyes were red, watery, and puffy. "I-idiot," he croaked.

Aki's ears turned pink. "I am not!" he shot back defiantly. "You're the one actin' just like you did last summer!"

Shinji stood up, finding the opposite wall more interesting to look at than the silverette's face. "… Yeah. Sorry."

"Anyway, let's go back. Miki gonna get mad and come up here herself if we take too long."

"… Yeah."

Shinjiro couldn't bring himself to move his legs just yet, however. He watched Akihiko start to turn away, pause, and then turn about to face him, his eyebrows knit together. "Shinji? What's the matter?"

The brunette gulped. His eyes started to sting again.

"Aki… I can't remember her face anymore."


End file.
